Game of Shadows
by StormyTempest
Summary: <html><head></head>Death is waiting at every corner, just for me. Maybe, you could call it pure dumb luck, but I say epic brilliance! Armed with lots of skills and trained to perfection, many feel my power filled to the brim of my being. As the Vessel of the Dreamer, I will do whatever it takes to live and make the ultimate sacrifice, when all these conflict is over, in order to defeat the system.</html>
1. Index - Game Fundamentals

**Strength (STR)** - Determines a character's inventory capacity **[+1 Inventory Slot per 10 STR]**, inventory weight capacity **[+10g Weight Capacity per 1 STR]**, the multiplier for a character's physical critical hits **(CRIT DMG) [+1% CRIT DMG for Physical Attacks per 10 STR]** and reduces physical status debuff durations **[-1% physical debuff duration per 50 STR]**. Also gives additional Health **(HP) [+3 MAX HP per 5 STR]**, additional physical chakra capacity **(MAX PC) [+4 MAX PC per 5 STR]**, physical chakra regeneration **(PC REGEN) [+1% PC REGEN per 5 STR]**, additional physical defense **(PHYS DEF) [+1 PHYS DEF per 1 STR]**, additional physical damage **(PHYS DMG) [+2 PHYS DMG per 1 STR]**, stamina **(STA) [+1 STA per 5 STR]** and reduces stamina usage for physical actions **[-1% STA usage for physical actions per 75 STR]**.

Train by doing strength enhancing exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, weight lifting, etc. Strength can also be increased by eating protein rich food.

**Dexterity (DEX)** - Determines a character's speed of all attacks **(ATK SPD) [+1% ATK SPD per 25 DEX]**, movement speed **(MOVE SPD) [+1% MOVE SPD per 5 DEX]**, accuracy **(ACC) [+1% ACC per 15 DEX]**, ability to evade attacks **(EVA) [+1% EVA per 5 DEX]**, and ability to make a critical hit **(CRIT) [+1% CRIT per 10 DEX]**. Also gives additional physical chakra capacity **(MAX PC) [+2 MAX PC per 5 DEX]**, additional physical defense **(PHYS DEF) [+1 PHYS DEF per 5 DEX]**, additional physical damage **(PHYS DMG) [+3 PHYS DMG per 5 DEX]**, reduces physical chakra usage of all skills **[-1% PC usage of skills per 10 DEX]**, reduces stamina usage for physical actions **[-1% STA usage for physical actions per 25 DEX]**, the cooldown physical skills **[-1% cooldown of physical skills per 15 DEX]** and enhances the multiplier for a character's critical hits **(CRIT DMG) [+1% CRIT DMG per 15 DEX]**.

Train by going through obstacle courses, flexibility exercises, stretching and gymnastics.

**Vitality (VIT)** - Determines a character's health points **(MAX HP) [+3 MAX HP per 1 VIT]**, physical chakra **(MAX PC) [+1 MAX PC per 1 VIT]**, physical defense **(PHYS DEF) [+3 PHYS DEF per 1 VIT]**, health regeneration **(HP REGEN) [+1% HP REGEN per 1 VIT]**, physical chakra regeneration **(PC REGEN) [+1% PC REGEN per 1 VIT]**, stamina **(STA) [+3 STA per 5 VIT]** and received healing from skills and items **[+1% Received Healing per 20 VIT]**. Also adds inventory capacity **[+1 Inventory Slot per 20 VIT]**, inventory weight capacity **[+1g Weight Capacity per 1 VIT]** and reduces debuff durations **[-1% debuff duration per 15 VIT]**.

Train by doing cardio workouts such as yoga and jogging. Vitality can also be increased by eating carbohydrate and protein rich food.

**Intelligence (INT)** - Determines a character's spiritual chakra **(MAX SC) [+3 MAX SC per 2 INT]**, the damage of chakra and elemental attacks **(CHAKRA/ELEM DMG) [+4 CHAKRA/ELEM DMG per 1 INT]**, spiritual chakra regeneration **(SC REGEN) [+1% SC REGEN per 1 INT]** the effectiveness of buff/debuff skills **[+1% skill effect per 25 INT, +1% Duration to Status Buffs/Debuffs per 20 INT]** and the multiplier for a character's non-physical critical hits **(CRIT DMG) [+1% CRIT DMG for Non-Physical Attacks per 5 INT]**. Also adds elemental defense **(ELEM DEF) [+1 ELEM DEF per 1 INT]**, accuracy for non-physical attacks **(ACC) [+1% ACC for Chakra and Elemental Attacks per 25 INT]**, reduces casting time of non-physical skills **[-1% Casting Time of all Non-Physical Skills per 50 INT]** and enhances the mastery rate of non-physical skills **[+1% Mastery Rate of all Non-Physical Skills per 40 INT]**.

Train by studying and meditating.

**Wisdom (WIS)** - Determines a character's elemental defense **(ELEM DEF) [+3 ELEM DEF per 1 WIS]**, reduces chakra usage for all skills **[-1% PC and SC usage of skills per 25 WIS]**, stamina usage for non-physical skills **[-1% STA usage of non-physical Skills per 30 WIS]**, increases attack speed of spiritual skills **[-1% ATK SPD skills per 20 WIS]**, and casting time of non-physical skills **[-1% Casting Time of Non-Physical Skills per 30 WIS]**. Also gives additional spiritual chakra **(MAX SC) [+2 SC per 5 WIS]**, spiritual chakra regeneration **(SC REGEN) [+1% SC REGEN per 5 WIS]**, effectiveness of buff/debuff skills **[+1% skill effect per 250 WIS, +1% Duration to Status Buffs/Debuffs per 40 WIS]**, ability to resist non-physical status debuffs **[+1% chance to withstand a Non-Physical status debuff per 30 WIS]** and enhances the mastery rate of non-physical skills **[+1% Mastery Rate of all Non-Physical Skills per 35 WIS]**.

Train by puzzle solving and meditating.

**Luck (LUK)** - Determines the drop rate of items **[+1% drop rate of enhanced items per 5 LUK, +1% drop rate of rare items per 20 LUK, +1% drop rate of unique items per 50 LUK]**, additional currency drop **[+1% currency dropped by enemies per 5 LUK]**, chance to upgrade an item's effectiveness and efficiency through fortification or alchemy **[+1% chance to upgrade item per 10 LUK]**, reduces the chance to destroy an item through fortification or alchemy **[-1% chance to destroy item per 25 LUK]** and the chance to lower an item's effectiveness and efficiency through fortification or alchemy **[-1% chance to lower an item's effectiveness and efficiency per 15 LUK]**. Also adds accuracy of all attacks **(ACC) [+1% ACC per 25 LUK]**, enhances the ability to evade attacks **(EVA) [+1% EVA per 20 LUK]**, the ability to make a critical hit **(CRIT) [+1% CRIT per 30 LUK]** and gives a small chance to disregard the health/chakra/stamina requirement of skills **[1% chance to not use health/chakra/stamina for skills per 100 LUK]**.

Derived Stats:

**MAX HP** - The capacity of a character to take damage, when HP hits 0, the character dies; **Base 100**

**HP REGEN** - The amount of health replenished per second; Base 0.1% HP per second; Max 10% HP per second

**MAX PC** - The capacity of a character to use a physical skill; when PC hits 10% of MAX PC, the character passes out; when PC hits 0, the character dies; **Base 100**

**PC REGEN** - The amount of physical chakra replenished per second; Base 0.1% PC per second; **Max 10% PC per second**

**MAX SC** - The capacity of a character to use a spiritual skill, when SC hits 10% of MAX SC, the character passes out; when PC hits 0, the character dies; **Base 100**

**SC REGEN** - The amount of spiritual chakra replenished per second; Base 0.1% SC per second; **Max 10% SC per second**

**Inventory Capacity** - The amount of items a character is capable of storing in the inventory; **Base 10 Slots**

**Inventory Weight** - The total weight of items a character is capable of storing in the inventory; **Base 1000g**

**PHYS DEF** - Damage reduction against physical attacks; **Base 1000**

**PHYS DMG** - Damage multiplicand for physical attacks; **Base 500**

**ELEM DEF** - Damage reduction against elemental attacks; **Base 1000**

**CHAKRA DMG** - Damage multiplicand for purely chakra based attacks; **Base 500**

**ELEM DMG** - Damage multiplicand for elemental attacks; **Base 500**

**STA** - The capacity of a character to use skills and do regular attacks; **Base 25**; Other than the use of skills and attacks, STA is also reduced permanently by 10% of inventory weight

**ATK SPD** - The amount of time it takes to attack using a skill and regular attacks and interval between regular attacks and skills; **Base Skill Cooldown 10 seconds, Base Attack Cooldown 2.5 seconds; MIN Skill and Attack Cooldown 0.1 second**

**MOVE SPD** - The distance a character covers in a second at top speed; **Base 5 meters per second; Max 500 meters per second**

**CRIT** - The chance to make a critical hit; **Base 15%; Max 75%**

**CRIT DMG** - The damage multiplier for critical hits; **Base 110%; Max 300%**

**EVA** - The chance of a character to evade attacks; **Base 20%; Max 95%**

**ACC** - The chance of a character to make successful hits; **Base 30%; Max 100%**

* * *

><p><strong>LVL | EXP Requirement | Stat Points | Other Bonuses<strong>

1 | 1000 | 1 | None

2 | 2500 | 1 | None

3 | 4500 | 1 | None

4 | 7000 | 1 | None

5 | 10000 | 1 | None

6 | 13500 | 2 | None

7 | 17500 | 2 | None

8 | 22000 | 2 | None

9 | 27000 | 2 | None

10 | 32500 | 2 | Basic Ninja Academy Kit

15 | 77500 | 3 | 5 Academy Grade Kunai and

10 Academy Grade Shuriken

20 | 125000 | 4 | 5 Chakra Replenishing Pills

25 | 205000 | 5 | 10 Chakra Replenishing Pills

30 | 277500 | 6 | 10 Standard Grade Kunai and

20 Standard Grade Shuriken

35 | 392500 | 7 | 10 Storage Scrolls

40 | 490000 | 8 | 20 Standard Grade Kunai and

40 Standard Grade Kunai

45 | 640000 | 9 | 1 Sheet of Chakra Paper

50 | ? | 10 | Dummy's Guide to [Smithing] and

10L of Chakra Metal

55 | ? |11 | 2x 1Kg Wristband Weights,

2x 2Kg Ankleband Weights,

2x 4Kg Armband Weights and

1x 10Kg Waistband Weights

60 | ? | 12 | 50 Standard Grade Kunai and

100 Standard Grade Shuriken

65 | ? | 13 | Dummy's Guide to [Sealing] and

10 Sealing Scrolls

70 | ? | 14 | 20L of Chakra Metal and

15 Sealing Scrolls

75 | ? | 15 | [Fire Release: Flame Bullet] Technique Scroll,

[Wind Release: Wind Bullet] Technique Scroll,

[Lightning Release: Lightning Bullet] Technique Scroll,

[Earth Release: Earth Bullet] Technique Scroll,

[Water Release: Water Bullet] Technique Scroll

80 | ? | 16 | [Sealing Art: Barrier Formula]

85 | ? | 17 | Dummy's Guide to [Fortification] and

crafting materials for [Fortification]

90 | ? | 18 | Dummy's Guide to [Sword Arts] and

a Kendo stick

95 | ? | 19 | 100 Standard Grade Kunai and

250 Standard Grade Shuriken

100 | ? | 20 | [Shadow Clone] Technique Scroll

110 | ? | 21 | [Chakra Sensing] and

[Chakra Dampening] Skill Scrolls

120 | ? | 22 | ?

130 | ? | 23 | ?

140 | ? | 24 | ?

150 | ? | 25 | ?

160 | ? | 26 | ?

170 | ? | 27 | ?

180 | ? | 28 | ?

190 | ? | 29 | ?

MAX | ? | 30 | ?

* * *

><p><strong>Skills Mastery Rate:<strong>

**Passives** (*If passive is not in use after 1 hour, mastery rate looses 1% per hour; If passive is in use, mastery rate increases equal to 1 use per hour):

**LVL | Uses (Cumulative) | EXP per use | Starting EXP**

1 | 5 | 0 | 0

2 | 8 | 12.5% | 62.5%

3 | 14 | 7.14% | 57.14%

4 | 23 | 4.35% | 60.87%

5 | 35 | 2.86% | 65.71%

6 | 50 | 2% | 70%

7 | 68 | 1.47% | 73.53%

8 | 89 | 1.12% | 76.40%

9 | 113 | 0.88% | 78.76%

10 | 140 | 0.71% | 80.71%

n | 5+3+3(2)+3(3)+….+3(n-3)+3(n-2)+3(n-1)

**Actives** (*Self-Buff actives that use a continuous chakra flow gives mastery rate equal to 1 use per hour):

**LVL | ****Uses (Non-cumulative) | ****Mastery rate per use**

1 | 2 | 0

2 | 5 | 20%

3 | 9 | 11.11%

4 | 14 | 7.14%

5 | 20 | 5%

6 | 27 | 3.70%

7 | 35 | 2.86%

8 | 44 | 2.27%

9 | 54 | 1.85%

10 | 65 | 1.54%

n | 2+3+4+5+…+(n-4)+(n-3)+(n-2)+(n-1)


	2. Chapter 1 - Genesis of Team Seven

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any related franchises. Clearly, anyone should know that.**

* * *

><p><strong>_Tower of the Fire's Shadow, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 1400 Local Time, 23 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_ <strong>

LVL 169 Fire's Shadow, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was looking out his glass window and into the hustle and bustle of the marketplace, contemplating on the events he had expected to happen years ago and about the actions he would have to take thereafter. As he heard the hiss of the sliding door, he closed his eyes, ready for the conversation he'd have to take with his long-time friend and rival, Shimura Danzo.

LVL 157 Ex-Root Commander, Shimura Danzo, was a heavily bandaged old man, leaning heavily on his cane with his right had while his left was hidden in his robes. He might look like he cannot have had the right designated level on him based on his appearance, but that didn't fool the Fire's Shadow. He knew that Danzo is far from the crippled old man he is showing but didn't point it out as he already knew that his friend knows he knows.

Hiruzen turned away from the window and towards his desk, eyeing the large list of piled up appointments and requests on the side of his screen with disapprovingly. As he was crossing the distance from the now covered glass wall, Danzo came to a halt a meter in front of the desk, a frown marring the old war hawk's face. Hiruzen sat down with a heavy sigh and waited for his friend to speak up, while rummaging through his robes for his pipe.

"I take it, your student will be joining the ranks of the ninjas today?" Danzo began, though Hiruzen doubted he needed any confirmation of such event from him. He knew that even though the ROOT was officially disbanded, it is still running its operations underground, and as such, knew that Danzo would have eyes and ears everywhere in the Elemental Nations. After Hiruzen's quiet nod, Danzo continued, "Are you really planning to have him go through the same system as everyone else would? First, going through the Academy, and now this? Have you gone senile?"

"You should know personally the risks of taking him out of the system and becoming one of the special ops. Especially after the whole fiasco with the Uchiha, I am never again going to let anyone, especially him, out of the system. Socialization with people his age would be best to help him cope up with the stresses of this world, after all." Hiruzen said, smoke puffing out of his pipe.

Danzo seemed to contemplate that statement for a while before turning on his heel. As the sliding opened for him, he said, "If that is your decision then there is nothing I can do about it, but, for all our sakes, I hope that we won't come to regret this."

Before Hiruzen could even reply, Danzo had already gone out, the door hissing as it closed. Hiruzen sighed heavily as he said, "I hope so too." He turned his pipe down on his glass table, the remains of the tobacco being emptied immediately after, then glared at the tasks he would have to do for the day.

* * *

><p><strong>_Ninja Academy, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 1545 Local Time, 23 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_ <strong>

Hatake Kakashi leaned against the railing of the academy rooftop, while waiting for his three new students. He sighed heavily as he scrutinized the profile windows of two of his students, the third one he had forgotten to ask permission from the Third Fire's Shadow for access, he resolved to just use his [Observe] skill for when Uzumaki Naruto comes around. There, in front of him, are two large windows showing the various information known about Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.

**Level 33**

**Title: N/A**

**HP: {100+42+210}=352/352**

**PC: {100+56+42+105+50}=353/353**

**SC: {100+153+108+50}=411/411**

**STA: {25+14+42}=81/81**

**Status: Genin(+1% EXP Gain), Descendant of Kagura(+1 INT per LVL, +3 WIS per LVL), ? [+10% to all Stats]**

**Name: Sakura Haruno**

**Affiliation: Village Hidden in the Leaves**

**Age: 12**

**Inventory Limit: {10+7+3}=20 Slots**

**Inventory Weight: {1000+700+70}=1770g**

**Unassigned Stat Points: 29**

**Assigned Stat Points: 20 STR, 20 DEX, 20 VIT, 20 INT, 20 WIS**

**Stats**

**STR | {70.2}={39+(39*0.7)+(39*0.1)}**

**DEX | {105.8}={46+(46*1.2)+(46*0.1)}**

**VIT | {70.5}={47+(47*0.4)+(47*0.1)}**

**INT | {103.15}={61+(61*0.05)+(61*0.1)+33}**

**WIS | {183.8}={53+(53*0.5)+(53*0.1)+99}**

**LUK | {11}={10+(10*0.1)}**

**PHYS DEF | {1741}={1000+70+21+210+440}**

**PHYS DMG | {923}={500+140+63+220}**

**ELEM DEF | {1652}={1000+103+549}**

**ELEM DMG | {912}={500+412}**

**CHAKRA DMG | {1492}={500+412+580}**

**ATK SPD | {9.6s}={10s-(10s*4%)};{2.4s}={2.5s-(2.5s*4%)}**

**MOVE SPD | {6.05m/s}={5m/s+(5m/s*21%)}**

**CRIT | {16.5%}={15%+(15%*10%)}**

**CRIT DMG | {117%}={110%+7%}**

**EVA | {24.2%}={20%+(20%*21%)}**

**ACC | {32.1%}={30%+(30%*7%)}**

**Background:** Haruno Sakura, daughter of retired Jonins Haruno Kizashi and Haruno Mebuki, has been known to exhibit the extraordinary sensory capability we call the [Eye of the Kagura] ever since the age of 5. Sensing chakra as a spectrum of colors, with a known radius of 50 meters, she had often taken to exploring the village, occasionally wandering towards the training grounds where she had made the dream of following her parents' footsteps, despite their protests. In order to support her, Sakura had been pushed by her parents to take a supportive role by learning the illusion arts and some of herblore.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at reading the status [Descendant of Kagura]. He thought that all lines that descended from the legendary Kagura, known for the extraordinary [Eye of the Kagura] had already been erased after the near extinction of the Uzumaki clan which was said to have had the most prominent line. He shrugged the detail and shifted his attention to her stats instead, and again raising an eyebrow at her base stats. Doing some quick math, Kakashi figured that her strength, dexterity and vitality stats must have been kept at their bare minimum to meet the requirement for the Special Hidden Leaf Academy Martial Arts tier of the Academy Martial Arts. He found himself asking whether or not she'd spent her additional stat point yet or had she merely trained herself to meet the requirements - the path Kakashi would taken if he was in her place so that she could have more selection for when she reaches the rank of Chuunin, the time when specialization was most recommended.

He absently closed the window showing Sakura's stats, shrugging off the amount of stats put into her intelligence and wisdom, attributing them as something to enhance illusory techniques, the art he thought Sakura would most likely excel in. With one of the two windows closed, he focused on the profile of Uchiha Sasuke. At seeing his stats, Kakashi whistled loudly.

**Level 46**

**Title: The Last Uchiha Ninja**

**HP: {100+36+189}=325/325**

**PC: {100+48+38+93+50+276}=605/605**

**SC: {100+315+36+50+276}=776/776**

**STA: {25+12+36}=73/73**

**Status: Genin (+1% EXP Gain), Uchiha (+6 MAX PC and MAX SC per LVL, +3 INT per LVL, -30% PC and SC Usage of Copy Wheel's Eye, +5% Mastery Rate to Copy Wheel's Eye), Clan Heir (+50% Reputation Gain), ? (+10% to all Stats)**

**Name: Sasuke Uchiha**

**Affiliation: Village Hidden in the Leaves**

**Age: 12**

**Inventory Limit: {10+6+3}=19 Slots**

**Inventory Weight: {1000+640+63}=1703g**

**Unassigned Stat Points: 130**

**Assigned Stat Points: 20 STR, 20 DEX, 20 VIT, 20 INT, 20 WIS, 5 LUK**

**Stats**

**STR | ****{64.5}={43+(43*0.4)+(43*0.1)}**

**DEX | ****{99.9}={54+(54*0.75)+(54*0.1)}**

**VIT | ****{63.45}={47+(47*0.25)+(47*0.1)}**

**INT | ****{210.45}={63+(63*0.05)+(63*0.1)+138}**

**WIS | ****{62.4}={39+(39*0.5)+(39*0.1)}**

**LUK | ****{11}={10+(10*0.1)}**

**PHYS DEF | ****{1367}={1000+64+19+189+105}**

**PHYS DMG | ****{829}={500+128+57+140}**

**ELEM DEF | ****{1396}={1000+210+186}**

**ELEM DMG | ****{1130}={500+630}**

**CHAKRA DMG | ****{1640}={500+630+510}**

**ATK SPD | ****{9.7s}={10s-(10s*3%)};{2.425s}={2.5s-(2.5s*3%)}**

**MOVE SPD | ****{5.95m/s}={5m/s+(5m/s*19%)}**

**CRIT | ****{16.5%}={15%+(15%*9%)+(15%*1%)}**

**CRIT DMG | ****{122%}={110%+6%+6%}**

**EVA | ****{22.2%}={20%+(20%*9%)+(20%*2%)}**

**ACC | ****{32.1%}={30%+(30%*6%)+(30%*1%)}**

**Background:** Uchiha Sasuke, as his surviving parent and himself has agreed, would be the last one to go through the life of a ninja, declaring their clan to shift towards becoming a civilian one instead, after the incident that led their clan to near-extinction. Uchiha Mikoto, retired Jonin and now the clan head, has said, "No more. I couldn't take this anymore, the bloodshed, the murder, the trauma, I just couldn't anymore. I wish I could have stopped my sons from living this life but I had become head of house far too late. So instead, I am taking the opportunity to prohibit any of the later generations of the clan from taking another step towards the dreadful life of a ninja."

Based on his stats, Kakashi would guess that Sasuke would be the primary damage dealer - or secondary, he'd have to see the third one's stats before he could make his judgment on the team composition. He guessed that Naruto would best be the protector of the three, basing on the fact that he is a [Uzumaki] and the host of the [Nine-Tailed Fox] on top of that. With Sasuke, Kakashi could probably teach some elemental skills and a bit of the Interceptor style he'd from Obito during the small amount of time they'd been in a team. With Sakura, Kakashi could probably teach some higher level illusions and some more advanced First Aid he'd learned from his time in the ANBU since she's probably taking the support role amongst the three. As he hasn't yet seen Naruto's stats, Kakashi could only think of having him go through trap-making and stealth skills if what he remembered about him were true - an extraordinarily gifted prankster, much like his mom before him.

Kakashi closed Sasuke's profile window as he heard footstep coming from the stairs. He immediately used his [Observe] on Naruto and moved the window that appeared to the side, intent on reading the information on him for later, only for him to receive a notification.

[Illusion] has been detected, do you wish to dispel it? [Yes] or [No]

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that but tapped on [Yes] anyways, making the notification disappear. However, as he did so, another window appeared in front of him, and a quick glance to his right indicated that Naruto's Profile Window has disappeared. What he read in the window in front of him, however, made him frown deeply behind his mask.

Restricted Access. Unable to view information on character. Requires S-Class Permission.

"Hey! Hey! Teacher! We're here! Can you hear us?!" Kakashi heard the rather loud and boisterous voice of one of his students as he closed the non-viewable profile information of one of his students-to-be.

"Yes, yes. I can hear you, though you could have made me deaf, did you really have to shout so loud?" Kakashi asked lazily.

"Well you were staring into space, I thought you were blind and deaf 'cause we were talking 'bout you just as loud but you just didn't seem to hear us." said the blonde sheepishly, who he guessed must be Naruto, the resemblance really is striking, it's a wonder not much ever looked into who his parents were.

"Eh, well, I was busy with some important business, but that's done now. So let's get this done, shall we? Introductions! Tell me about yourself, your hobbies, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future and anything you would like to add."

"Why don't you start it out, teacher?" suggested the pinkette, who must be Sakura, leaving the third one to be Sasuke.

"'Kay, well. The name's Hatake Kakashi. Hobbies? …hmmm, I don't really have much, same as like and dislikes. And dreams, well, I don't really wanna tell you."

"So all we could really get from you out of this so-called introduction is your name, huh?" he heard the girl grumble.

"Yep!" Kakashi supplied brightly, even though he knew the question was a rhetorical one.

"Bastard." he heard the three mutter under their breaths, with their eyes squinted at him.

"What was that?" Kakashi asked, a bit of malicious intent leaking off him.

"Nothing!" said the blonde immediately, "Anyways! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, the greatest ninja ever, so ya guys better take notes of these for when I get super famous and super awesome. My hobbies are gardening and training. I like, no, love ramen, especially miso. Dislike the time it takes to cook ramen and fresh vegetables, blegh! And my dream is to become the Fire's Shadow and have everyone acknowledge me, believe it!"

"Who's next? How bout you, pinky?" Kakashi asked, looking pointedly at the girl.

Sakura rolled her eyes but answered all the same, "Name's Haruno Sakura and that's all you're all ever going to get out of me unless you tell us more about yourself."

At that, the other boy, Sasuke, huffed, "'s not like there's anything to find out, you're basically an open book."

"Well, tell us about yourself then." Shifting his attention and disregarding the heated glare the girl gave at the boy.

"Right, and you think I'm going to tell you anything about myself like this idiot here." The boy snorted, "The name's Uchiha Sasuke, you already know that much, the rest is for you to find out yourself."

"Hey! I'm not an idiot! Take that back!" the blonde shouted.

"Not going to." the other boy replied with a scoff.

"Okay, okay." Kakashi called, trying to stop the argument from escalating, "So you three, idiot, bastard and ass, will have to come to Training Ground 3 tomorrow at 0600 hours. Failure to comply means expulsion from the ninja system." Kakashi said brightly as the three scowled darkly at him, "See ya then!" And just like that, he was engulfed in smoke, which was blown by the wind, revealing no scarecrow.

From a nearby tree, standing on a branch, the Jonin watched the three silently and interestedly, waiting for their reactions. After a hushed conversation between the tree, he saw Sakura pointed her finger towards the tree he was in. The boys followed the direction she was pointing at and Kakashi was met with accusing eyes. Kakashi merely stayed on the same tree, bewildered, he had made sure to stay out of the 50 meter radius her profile stated about her sensing range.

As Kakashi was about to resume his business - continue Come, Come, Paradise, Chapter 12, Rangiku meets Loverboy, Ichigo - while on his way to the tower and discuss the things he needed with the Fire's Shadow like that much needed permission on Naruto's file, he heard the wind whistle, like a very sharp object cutting its way from behind him. He quickly took out a kunai and easily parried the oncoming projectile, then extending his senses to figure out who the assailant was but haven't been able to find anyone within the 75 meter radius except himself. He dropped to the ground, picking up the weapon, and finding a note saying: 'Be careful not to make the same mistake tomorrow, Copy Nin Kakashi, you might just lose your life. Good luck!'

* * *

><p><strong>_Tower of the Fire's Shadow, Village of the Hidden Leaves, Land of Fire; 1630 Local Time, 23 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_ <strong>

Hiruzen absently looked up from his work as he heard the door hiss. He set his tablet down as Kakashi absently sat down on the chair before his desk, something he hasn't seen since near the end of the Third Shadow War when his second teammate, Nohara Rin. That was the beginning of Kakashi's tenure in the ANBU and all he did was weep silently. While the current situation seemed similar, all he saw in the sad eyes of the younger man was nostalgia.

"I take it, you've met your new Genin team?" Hiruzen started, to snap Kakashi out of his reverie. "If you're thinking of passing this team to another, at least see through whatever test you have for them before you do so."

"…hmm? Oh, no. It wasn't that. I was just thinking whether or not I should go on with the test tomorrow or just take them on without it. They seem to already work well together and their relations, from what I've seen, already meets my standards, a lot more than what I had during my first team." Kakashi said, with a frown, "Oh and that reminds me. I need access codes to view Naruto's profile."

"Ooohhh! I totally forgot about that, I should've told you about that when I asked you to take this team on." Hiruzen said, standing from his chair and moving towards the wall and pressed a combination on the keypad stuck on the wall. A second later, the glass walls had been covered by soundproof cushions added with silencing seals encompassing the ceiling, the walls and the floor. "Standard procedure, I hope you still remember."

"Couldn't ever forget." Kakashi said, still sitting on the chair, but straighter than his previous slouching posture.

"Now, I don't think that I have to remind you that as with all secrets with S-Class priority, any word that comes out of this room is punishable by death." Hiruzen said lightly, at which Kakashi nodded curtly, "Right, so, here it is the access right, you can try it again."

"[View Profile: Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze]" Kakashi said immediately after closing he closed the notification that said he had gained access to his student's profile, "Thanks." Kakashi said to the Fire's Shadow before dropping his gaze back at the window at which Hiruzen awaited with quiet glee for the shock, or maybe sadness or anger, at the information.

**Level 63**

**Title: Demon**

**HP: {100+57+1053+630}=1840/1840**

**PC: {100+76+84+525+50+210+135+441}=1621/1621**

**SC: {100+453+96+50+210+135+441}=1485/1485**

**STA: {25+19+210}=254/254**

**Status: ANBU (+10% Stealth Mastery Rate, +15% Trap Making and related Skills Mastery Rate), Namikaze (+5% Sealing Skills Mastery Rate, +10% Crafting Skills Mastery Rate), Uzumaki ( +11 MAX PC and SC per LVL, Changes Base PC REGEN to 1% PC per second, Changes Base SC REGEN to 1% SC per second), Full of Hot Air (+30% ELEM DMG to Wind Release Skills, -10% PC and SC Usage of Wind Release Skills, -15% STA Usage of Wind Release Skills), Nine-Tailed Fox Host (+4 INT per LVL, -4 PC and SC per LVL, -10% PC and SC REGEN, -75% Reputation Gains), Clan Heir (+50% Reputation Gain), ?(+3 LUK per LVL)**

**Name: Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze**

**Affiliation: Village Hidden in the Leaves**

**Age: 12**

**Inventory Limit: {10+9+17}=36 Slots**

**Inventory Weight: {1000+990+351}=2441g**

**Unassigned Stat Points: 329**

**Assigned Stat Points: 25 STR, 50 DEX, 25 WIS**

**Stats**

**STR | ****{99.28}={68+(68*0.46)}**

**DEX | ****{211.86}={107+(107*0.98)}**

**VIT | ****{351}={15+(15*1.4)+315}**

**INT | ****{303.15}={15+(15*1.4)+(15*0.05)+(15*0.42)+(15*0.54)+252}**

**WIS | ****{164.83}={53+(53*0.5)+(53*1.26)+(53*1.35)}**

**LUK | ****{199}={10+189}**

**PHYS DEF | ****{2644}={1000+99+42+1053+450}**

**PHYS DMG | ****{1001}={500+198+123+180}**

**ELEM DEF | ****{1795}={1000+303+492}**

**ELEM DMG | ****{1712}={500+1212}**

**CHAKRA DMG | ****{3212}={500+1212+1500}**

**ATK SPD | ****{9s}={10s-(10s*8%)-(10s*2%)};{2.25s}={2.5s-(2.5s*8%)-(2.5s*2%)}**

**MOVE SPD | ****{7.3m/s}={5m/s+(5m/s*42%)+(5m/s*4%)}**

**CRIT | ****{18.15%}={15%+(15%*21%)}**

**CRIT DMG | ****{134%}={110%+14%}**

**EVA | ****{29.2%}={20%+(20%*42%)+(20%*4%}**

**ACC | ****{34.8%}={30%+(30%*14%)+(30%*2%}**

**Background:** Made a host to the Nine-Tailed Fox moments after his birth, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto presented a great potential given his combined Uzumaki - a clan widely known for their unique style in sealing - and Namikaze - a line of artisans proven to be very skilled in the sealing arts - heritage. At age 3, the Third Fire's Shadow had decided to start his training early on to pacify the village's council about the role Naruto would have to take as the village's ultimate weapon and to help protect Naruto from abduction attempts or other attempts at his life - the kidnapping attempt by ambassador of the Village Hidden in the Clouds. From then on, Naruto has been shown to be very exemplary under the Professor's tutelage and a prodigy in the Sealing Arts much like his late father before him. At age 7, there had been an unknown bloodline discovered in Naruto as he had signed his first Summoning Contract with the arrival of the Toad Sage, Jiraiya. While under the guise of a prank-loving academy student, Naruto also trained as an ANBU trainee under the ANBU Squad 16 while still continuing his other unfinished tasks in the Fire Shadow's training regiment.

All the while Kakashi had been reading the profile, Hiruzen had been chuckling at seeing Kakashi's lone visible eye go wider and wider to becoming bug-eyed. From time to time, Kakashi would look at the Third, and in response, Hiruzen would merely motion for him to continue reading. By the time Kakashi had finished reading, he was chuckling nervously and his eye had that look that said, 'Are you freaking kidding me?'

To add to Kakashi's increasing awe and fear, the Professor said, "Maybe you should also check out the profiles of your other two students, it's been a week since the ones at the local archives had been updated after all, here." Hiruzen went towards one wall and went through several names with the control panel that appeared before him.

**Level 47**

**Title: Mystic Blossom**

**HP: {100+147+1020}=1267/1267**

**PC: {100+196+118+510+50+120+35}=1129/1129**

**SC: {100+670+339+50+120+35}=1314/1314**

**STA: {25+49+192}=266/266**

**Status: Genin(+1% EXP Gain), Descendant of Kagura(+1 INT per LVL, +3 WIS per LVL), Medic (+1 DEX per LVL, +3 VIT per LVL, +2 INT per LVL), Illusionist (+100% Illusion Strength, +10% Mastery Rate of [Internal Burst] Skill), ? [+10% to all Stats]**

**Name: Sakura Haruno**

**Affiliation: Village Hidden in the Leaves**

**Age: 12**

**Inventory Limit: {10+24+17}=51 Slots**

**Inventory Weight: {1000+2470+340}=3810g**

**Unassigned Stat Points: 0**

**Assigned Stat Points: 30 STR, 38 DEX, 30 VIT, 50 INT, 50 WIS, 47 LUK**

**Stats**

**STR | ****{247.35}={97+(97*1.45)+(97*0.1)}**

**DEX | ****{296.75}={135+(135*0.75)+(135*0.1)+47}**

**VIT | ****{340.68}={96+(96*0.98)+(96*0.1)+141}**

**INT | ****{391.72}={164+(164*0.05)+(164*0.24)+(164*0.14)+(164*0.1)+47+94}**

**WIS | ****{565.53}={159+(159*0.5)+(159*0.72)+(159*0.35)+(159*0.1)+141}**

**LUK | ****{62.7}={57+(57*0.1)}**

**PHYS DEF | ****{2576}={1000+247+59+1020+250}**

**PHYS DMG | ****{1551}={500+494+177+380}**

**ELEM DEF | ****{3086}={1000+391+1695}**

**ELEM DMG | ****{1904}={500+1404}**

**CHAKRA DMG | ****{6404}={500+1404+4500}**

**ATK SPD | ****{8.9s}={10s-(10s*11%)}; {2.23s}={2.5s-(2.5s*11%)}**

**MOVE SPD | ****{7.95m/s}={5m/s+(5m/s*59%)}**

**CRIT | ****{19.65%}={15%+(15%*29%)+(15*2%)}**

**CRIT DMG | ****{129%}={110%+19%}**

**EVA | ****{33.4%}={20%+(20%*59%)+(20%*3%)+(20%*5%)}**

**ACC | ****{36.3%}={30%+(30%*19%)+(30%*2%)}**

**Background:** After a week spent in the time distorted training field enclosed within the Uzumaki compound, Sakura has grown with bounds and leaps. Training day and night to help prepare herself for the world she is about to enter has allowed her to even learn the Mystical Might Martial Arts which the Legendary Tsunade is famous for. Together with her friends, she now calls herself a true ninja.

**Level 54**

**Title: Distorter**

**HP: {100+132+621}=853/853**

**PC: {100+176+218+309+50+65+10+324}=1252/1252**

**SC: {100+414+174+50+65+10+324}=1137/1137**

**STA: {25+44+123}=192/192**

**Status: Genin (+1% EXP Gain), Uchiha (+6 MAX PC and MAX SC per LVL, +3 INT per LVL, -30% PC and SC Usage of Copy Wheel's Eye, +5% Mastery Rate to Copy Wheel's Eye), Clan Heir (+50% Reputation Gain), Fire Hazard (+30% ELEM DMG to Fire Release Skills, -10% PC and SC Usage of Fire Release Skills, -15% STA Usage of Fire Release Skills), I am a Samurai! (+55% PHYS DMG when equipped with a sword, +10% CRIT for Sword Skills, -25% STA Usage for Sword Skills), ? [+10% to all Stats]**

**Name: Sasuke Uchiha**

**Affiliation: Village Hidden in the Leaves**

**Age: 12**

**Inventory Limit: {10+22+10}=42 Slots**

**Inventory Weight: {1000+2200+207}=3407g**

**Unassigned Stat Points: 0**

**Assigned Stat Points: 40 STR, 70 DEX, 50 VIT, 20 INT, 70 WIS, 74 LUK**

**Stats**

**STR | ****{220.42}={103+(103*1.04)+(103*0.1)}**

**DEX | ****{545.1}={158+(158*2.35)+(158*0.1)}**

**VIT | ****{207.09}={117+(117*0.67)+(117*0.1)}**

**INT | ****{276.84}={87+(87*0.05)+(87*0.13)+(87*0.04)+(87*0.1)+162}**

**WIS | ****{290.51}={139+(139*0.5)+(139*0.39)+(139*0.1)+(139*0.1)}**

**LUK | ****{86.9}={79+(79*0.1)}**

**PHYS DEF | ****{2555}={1000+220+109+621+605}**

**PHYS DMG | ****{2047}={500+440+327+780}**

**ELEM DEF | ****{2146}={1000+276+870}**

**ELEM DMG | ****{1604}={500+1104}**

**CHAKRA DMG | ****{2504}={500+1104+910}**

**ATK SPD | ****{7.9s}={10s-(10s*21%)}; {1.975s}={2.5s-(2.5s%*21%)}**

**MOVE SPD | ****{10.45m/s}={5m/s+(5m/s*109%)}**

**CRIT | ****{24%}={15%+(15%*54%)+(15%*2%)+(15%*4%)}**

**CRIT DMG | ****{184%}={110%+36%+38%}**

**EVA | {****44.2%}={20%+(20%*109%+(20%*4%))+(20%*8%)}**

**ACC | {****42.6%}={30%+(30%*36%)+(30%*2%)+(30%*4%)}**

**Background:** After a week spent in the time distorted training field enclosed within the Uzumaki compound, Sasuke's even stronger than ever. Training nonstop with the aim to protect, his unending resolve to keep his clan surviving, Sasuke has continued further on training his clan's famous bloodline and fire element, to surpass the generation before him. With a sword in hand, this ninja has just become more awesome, baby!

As Kakashi read through the information before him, like he was watching a horribly made movie, Hiruzen said, "Now that reminds me, that information on Naruto is also a week old, should I bring it up too?"

"Are you trying to make me quit or something?" Kakashi said, shifting his focus every now and again on the two profile windows and then to the old man, who was quietly chuckling with his back turned away from Kakashi, then back. "Am I seriously going to have to handle these kids? Are they even kids? These stats are monstrous!"

"Then you'll have to step up your game!" Hiruzen said gleefully, "You've been at LVL 107 for over a year now. Honestly, I think you've been slacking off the job, considering you don't take more than an A-Class mission since I had you out of the ANBU!"

"Then maybe you shouldn't have taken me out of the program." Kakashi said with a sigh, "What am I gonna do, at this rate, these brats are going to upstage me in just a few years!"

"Then train as if your life depended on it, where was that resolve you had years ago, where is the Will of Fire that burned so brightly? I've already said this before, and I'll say it again, the death of your special one doesn't mean the end of the world. It ends when you die, so live while you're at it!" Hiruzen said fiercely as he faced the younger man.

"Mah mah, I don't about training… As the Nara would have it, it's too troublesome, just watching the clouds go by is so much better." Kakashi drawled.

"Do you want me to call the Blue Beast?" Hiruzen threatened at which Kakashi's lone visible eye bugged out and he paled as much as his hair.

"No! Please, no! I'll train as much as you want just don't call the beast over. I don't wanna have another year of that illusion engraved in my memory." Kakashi pleaded.

"Mhm, I thought so. Now, that I got what I needed from you, you have to see this too, just to complete the set." Hiruzen said, going through another list of profiles, "Here you go, the updated profile of Naruto, it was just as he reported this morning."

**Level 69**

**Title: Demon**

**HP: {100+258+3888+483}=4729/4729**

**PC: {100+344+292+1902+50+375+365+483}=3911/3911**

**SC: {100+1679+912+50+375+365+483}=3964/3964**

**STA: {25+86+678}=789/789**

**Status: ANBU (+10% Stealth Mastery Rate, +15% Trap Making and related Skills Mastery Rate), Namikaze (+5% Sealing Skills Mastery Rate, +10% Crafting Skills Mastery Rate), Uzumaki (+11 MAX PC and SC per LVL, Changes Base PC REGEN to 1% PC per second, Changes Base SC REGEN to 1% SC per second), Full of Hot Air (+30% ELEM DMG to Wind Release Skills, -10% PC and SC Usage of Wind Release Skills, -15% STA Usage of Wind Release Skills), Nine-Tailed Fox Host (+4 INT per LVL, -4 PC and SC per LVL, -10% PC and SC REGEN, -75% Reputation Gains), Clan Heir (+50% Reputation Gain), ?(+3 LUK per LVL)**

**Name: Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze**

**Affiliation: Village Hidden in the Leaves**

**Age: 12**

**Inventory Limit: {10+43+63}=116 Slots**

**Inventory Weight: {1000+4340+1269}=6609g**

**Unassigned Stat Points: 0**

**Assigned Stat Points: 136 STR, 100 DEX, 100 VIT, 50 INT, 100 WIS**

**Stats**

**STR | ****{434.34}={213+(213*1.18)}**

**DEX | ****{732.78}={177+(177*3.14)}**

**VIT | ****{1269}={154+(154*5)+345}**

**INT | ****{1126}={103+(103*5)+(103*0.05)+(103*0.75)+(103*1.46)+276}**

**WIS | ****{1524.05}={187+(187*0.5)+(187*3)+(187*3.65)}**

**LUK | ****{207}={10+197}**

**PHYS DEF | ****{7718}={1000+434+146+3888+2250}**

**PHYS DMG | ****{2425}={500+868+438+900}**

**ELEM DEF | ****{6698}={1000+1126+4572}**

**ELEM DMG | ****{5004}={500+4504}**

**CHAKRA DMG | ****{13854}={500+4504+8850}**

**ATK SPD | ****{6.2s}={10s-(10s*29%)-(10s*9%)}; {1.55s}={2.5s-(2.5s*29%)-(2.5s*9%)}**

**MOVE SPD | ****{13.2m/s}={5m/s+(5m/s*146%)+(5m/s*18%)}**

**CRIT | ****{23.7%}={15%+(15%*73%)+(15%*6%)}**

**CRIT DMG | ****{158%}={110%+48%}**

**EVA | ****{54.6%}={20%+(20%*146%)+(20%*9%)+(20%*18%)}**

**ACC | ****{49.2%}={30%+(30%*48%)+(30%*7%)+(30%*9%)}**

**Background:** A week to the world, almost a month to him, spending his whole week after graduation training in the time-distorted training field within the Uzumaki compound, Naruto not only got stronger, he also learnt a plethora of skills, particularly the Elemental releases, and created brand new Sealing formulas. With the help of his Shadow clones what could have taken ages and ages of training was done in just a month - week. Just look at his stats, compare them to yours, be amazed and drool!

At reading Naruto's profile, all Kakashi could think was: 'Is there a cheat code to all of this?' Honestly, if he had read this a year earlier, he'd have worked his ass off to - not compete, no, he would never compete with a 12-year-old over such a thing as this - step up his game and think himself worthy of his rank. He'd have actually started on mastering all those techniques he'd copied over the years and not just bum out on his flat while out of the job.

"…hmmm, now that I've read it all again, I might have to call in Asuma and Kurenai too. Their students have also gone with these three. Might be better to shock them now than tomorrow."

* * *

><p><strong>_Training Ground 3, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 0945 Local Time, 24 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_ <strong>

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosion after explosion shook the training ground which had become some kind of a battlefield, if you asked any passersby. It had all started hours ago, with a slight tremor followed by what they though was the beginning of a forest fire. Luckily, there were no residence areas near the training fields, otherwise, they'd have received hefty fines for disturbing the peace, and they meant Kakashi who is now currently running for his dear life through the halfway destroyed forest. While he got his much needed training, it also got him wishing he'd had more preparation for this kind of roughhousing.

He hadn't experienced this much work out since Kushina, whose son is now chucking explosive riddled projectiles straight at his head. Even his own teacher hadn't put him through such course that she had, seals littering all over the place, one misstep could mean capture and eventual mission failure. If he ever tried to hide underground, there was the monster of a girl who would pound her way through with that Tsunade punch and if he ever got to be in her range, be caught in those horrific illusions with the Come, Come series books burning all around him.

Oh, why did he ever agree to take on this team? Simple, he thought they'd be a horrible one. And a horrible team they actually were, horribly terrifying, that is. This was meant to be a test for them, not for him! It was like they were the ones trying to get him to be their lackey instead of the other way around.

Kakashi quickly parried a slash from Sasuke on the right and kicked one of Naruto's shadow clones on the left then leapt of his branch to throw his quickly dwindling number of shuriken and kunai at the tags that were beginning to seal together, presumably to trap him inside a barrier where there would only be one way in and out.

"Getting tired yet? You know we're already worth the trouble, so why don't you just give up and pass us?" two Naruto's said simultaneously from behind him that attempted to slash at his neck.

"Hey! That could have killed me!" Kakashi said, while throwing shurikens at the passing blondes.

"But it didn't, did it?" he heard from all around him, with a quick [Internal Burst] he dispelled the illusion before it could even take effect, and leapt off towards another branch. From where he was previously, he saw Sakura growing out of the tree trunk, as she said with a smirk, "Besides, didn't you say come with the intent to kill?"

Kakashi would have leapt off the branch as soon as he landed on it, but found he couldn't move his body. He sent another [Internal Burst] but still couldn't move. It must've been a seal that got him done.

"So we'll be taking these then you can go." Sasuke said, taking the chinking bells off his waistband.

A second later, Kakashi righted himself up so that he could regain his balance, looking his students-to-be up and down. They looked almost no worse for wear while he felt like he'd just done his workout for the entire month, sweating all over and he even had his sleeves singed! Man, he really needed to work out more, maybe the Beast wouldn't be so bad after all, compared to these three little devils.

"And you already know the purpose of this test?" Kakashi asked, hoping they didn't so he could at least have some jollies.

"Duh." All three of them said with their eyes rolling at the same time, "Do you really think us idiots?" Naruto asked.

"We even dug up some dirt about ya, like, does this statement sound familiar: 'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash.' A bit cheesy but it'll do for a motto." Sasuke added.

"We know better than to abandon anyone, besides it's not like we'd ever leave each other behind." Sakura said with a smirk.

"Fine then. I guess, from today, we'll be Team Seven." Kakashi said, stretching off, "Man, I stink, see you guys back here tomorrow, same time. I'll be off for that much needed shower." And with that, Kakashi disappeared with a puff of smoke.

* * *

><p><strong>_Hidden Leaf Hospital, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 1300 Local Time, 24 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_ <strong>

Room 32, Room 33, Room 34… There! Room 35, Kakashi entered the room as the door hissed open. Inside, the two occupants paused their conversation to look at him then resumed it just a second later after a quick nod of acknowledgement.

"As I was saying, these kids are already more than capable of entering the Ranking Exam even though the next is still months later. There's really little I can do to further their training, I'd thought that first test would, at least, last an hour and they even made it before half of that time!" Kurenai said, from her chair, nursing her arm which is currently in a sling tied over her shoulder. "They're beasts, I tell you!"

"You think I won't know that? I'm the one in bed, dammit!" Asuma exclaimed, "I'm lucky enough to have changed the plans I had before, that late night notification from the old really saved my ass. Honestly, who would've believed that crap before experiencing them first-hand? What do they feed kids these days? Even for just a month, that's lot of growth from what was shown in the archives a week ago!"

"So you guys got done in too, huh?" Kakashi asked, leaning against the wall.

"Obviously." Both answered at the same time with deadpans adorning their faces, "So even the great Copy Nin, huh. The world must be ending." Kurenai said with a roll of her eyes, "What you gonna do bout it?"

"Well…" Kakashi drawled, "I thought we might join the Beast's bandwagon."

"You're that desperate?" Asuma asked, clearly surprised.

Kurenai, however, reacted very violently, "Oh no! Never! The spandex! The eyebrows! The crazy talk of youth! The terror! The horror!"

"Now, now. Let's think about this clearly. The eccentricities aside, he could actually be pretty decent. Tell me, when was the last time you guys gained a LVL?" Kakashi reasoned, looking at their LVLs - 98 on Kurenai and 101 on Asuma.

"The other month." Asuma replied.

"Last week." Kurenai said, calming down, she still squinted her eyes at Kakashi, suspicious of his intentions. Still, she heard him out, as it is now, there's really not much she has to do, she'd cleared her schedule for this one day that she thought would mostly be taken up by hours and hours of testing her cute little Genin team.

"And that guy's still been steadily going higher even at LVL 126. While his training exercises and workout styles are not suited for us, I think we could at least copy the enthusiasm, and maybe also get that Seal formula from Naruto while we're at it." Kakashi said, "If we could get Hyperbolic Time Chamber and add that with lots of training, I think we can go Super Saiyan in no time at all."

"Your inner fanboy's showing." Asuma said, "And how do you think we're going to get that seal, huh? None of us has learned the Time-Space Sealing branch of that art. I know you haven't even reached the Intermediate Sealing Arts."

"That's easy, we ask the brat to make it for us." At seeing the affronted expressions of his friends, probably at the thought of asking a kid who's almost twenty years younger than they are, Kakashi said with an eyeroll, "Oh swallow your prides. You've already got done in by twelve year olds once, what more is this going to do on your wounded pride? Besides, you can always build it up again later."

"Hmph."

"You ask the brat, we're going to get the beast, let's do this by the weekend. Hopefully, by then, I'll have got back on my feet." Asuma agreed.

"Fine then, but if we get in trouble with the old man, you're responsible for everything." Kurenai said.

"Deal." Kakashi said, with a big smile behind his mask. He had resolved that by the next month he'll have gotten his LVL back up and set a gap between him and his cute little team.

* * *

><p><strong>_Chapter One End_ <strong>


	3. Chapter 2 - Spreading the Madness

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any related franchises. That should be loud and clear enough.**

* * *

><p><strong>_Hidden Leaf Veterinary Clinic, Inuzuka Clan Compound, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 0800 Local Time, 27 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

"So what do you think?" Naruto asked.

"All vital signs are normal, her internal scans show the same anatomy of a regular cat, even with the irregular brainwave activity, she is just a normal cat, except maybe a little too high on adrenaline." replied Inuzuka Hana, "I've had this done several times before, my first time being when I first received the same quest, and consecutives ones from other Genin who's going through this the first time."

"See? I told you guys this would be a waste of time." Kakashi said, leaning against the frame of the doorway.

"Oh quiet you. I heard you and your team had done the same from when you were a Genin too, heard it right from mom." Hana said.

"Even those years ago?" Sakura asked incredulously, "How old is this cursed cat? Is it somehow immortal?"

Hana laughed nervously then knocked three times on her wooden office table, "I hope not." Standing from her chair and taking off her coat, then ushered the tree Genin out of her office, Kakashi had already gone ahead. "Now, why don't you get her to Madame Shijimi before the time limit expires."

"Sorry for the trouble, Miss Hana." Kakashi said, echoed by his team.

Hana waved them off, "No need to be sorry, I'm quite used to it. Bye!"

Team Seven exited the Inuzuka compound without much adieu, jumping up to the rooftop immediately as soon as they were out of it, basically as a sign of respect and because they can't just go out by jumping over the fence. After the incident that happened almost ten years ago, all clans had been extra-proactive in defending their clans while inside the compounds, installing several defensive mechanisms, one being the invisible electrical barriers as the most common. The architecture, while staying mostly archaic, the technology developed by the several geniuses of the past had changed their lives greatly, from communication systems to transportation channels.

With their bodies enhanced with chakra, they made it to the Fire Shadow's Tower, a 60-floor infrastructure with one hell of an elevator ride to the top where the office of the Fire Shadow resided and most activities that concerned ninjas were made. Naruto, holding on to the illusion sedated Demon Cat, Tora, grumbled, "Why did the old man's office have to be at the top? Couldn't it have been at the ground floor?"

"Shut up, we don't like this either but you don't see us complaining." Sasuke said, getting a bit of a green tinge in his complexion once the elevator ride started, three floors per second.

"When I get the title of Fire's Shadow, I'm going to make my office on the ground floor, I don't think I can keep going up and down this place this way." Naruto complained.

"Like you'll get that title ever." Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "It would have been better if we ran up the side, if only this place doesn't also have that electrical barrier in place."

Kakashi didn't say anything because he knew of the way the Fire's Shadow used to get in and out of the top floor, a very expensive teleporter from the NCSC (Namikaze Crafts and Seals Corporation). It was a product that stayed in the Research and Development phase and never made out to the market. As a product that was mostly based on the Thunder Flying God technique by the Second Fire's Shadow, whose patent on it would continue for another half a century, they couldn't ever get it to sell, for fear of Copyright Infringement, which could effectively shut them down. Techniques created by past Fire's Shadows are left for and only for any succeeding Fire's Shadows, that is if they ever met the requirements for it.

With the help of seals that the NCSC had developed in the past, they could even strengthen effects their technological advancements had made. With an ordinary phone, one could make a call to another who has a phone, given they have the contact number of the desired receiver. With a seal enhanced phone however, they could make a holographic communication, without the need to ever know anything about the sealing arts. That was about half a century ago when it was still a startup company.

The NCSC, now the biggest company in the continent, has made many advancements in all types of products, spanning from automotive to appliances, from gaming systems to security systems, from trains to plains, and much more. While it had served many customers and made many allies, it had also made great enemies, especially since it bore the name of Namikaze. As it had been merely a year before the start of the Third Shadow War, the NCSC had been blamed for many things, such as the creation of the incredibly destructive Elemental Bomb, nicknamed 'Death from the Cosmos', a nuclear bomb enhanced with a seal combination utilizing the five basic elements.

The NCSC had been a very valuable ally and often a client of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, mostly due to the relation the owner of the company had to the late Fourth Fire's Shadow, the Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato. With the death of the Fourth Fire's Shadow those twelve years ago and his legacy remaining in the shadows, the requests from the NCSC had dwindled and as such, so did the gifts. A 'ding' resounded through the elevator compartment followed by a 'hiss', the doors opened to reveal the front desk with a very irate woman talking loudly with someone over the phone, a man, it seems. Sasuke immediately made a beeline towards the right where the men's restroom resided.

Not one to idle around, Naruto made his way towards the room where missions are handed over and completed thereafter. Sasuke already knew where to go once he gets over his weird motion sickness. Sakura and Kakashi merely followed the blonde after loudly announcing his presence with, "What's up, old man!"

"A record set for first timers, eh…" Hiruzen said, stroking his goatee, with the smoking pipe set on is mouth, "Why don't you give Tora to Tora over there, who'll be taking care of her until Madame Shijimi arrives, while we process your mission so you can then finish your quest."

Tora, an ANBU agent with a cat mask on, took the Demon Cat from Naruto while Kakashi handed over the Mission Scroll to one of the Chuunin manning the desk beside the Third. As the Mission Scroll had been stamped, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, who just arrived on scene, received a notification saying, "Mission [Retrieve Demon Cat Tora] Complete."

They each tapped on the notification and finished the quest, receiving 1000 Ryo, 1000 EXP and reputation points - 15 for Sasuke, 10 for Sakura and 7.5 for Naruto. After completing the quest, however, they got another notification saying, "25 [D-Rank Quests] Completed! [C-Rank Quests] now Unlocked!"

"C-Rank! Finally, we don't have to do D-Ranks anymore!" Naruto whooped. They had spent their first two days of being a team doing nothing but D-Rank quests, as suggested by Kakashi, instead of doing more training, he doubted they would actually need more for months. "Give us a C-Rank! A C-Rank!" Naruto shouted.

"Now, now. Naruto, give your teammates a chance to say what they want about that." Hiruzen said, though admittedly, he was sure that the newly created Genin teams are more than ready to take on a C-Rank Mission, perhaps even a B-Rank. "Sasuke and Sakura, do you want to take on a C-Rank mission?"

"Hells yeah!" Sakura nearly shouted, "Oh anything to get away from those boring D-Ranks, and maybe get out of the village for once."

"Sure, why not." Sasuke said, "I was fine with babysitting, I'm used to it, but taking out some pests and weeding? I'm not even sure why we had to do the weeding for the garden of the Yamanaka clan, can't they have just bought a new weeder for those? Though, I have to admit, polishing those masks in the Uzumaki shrine gives me the creeps."

"Right, right?" Naruto asked, "First time I was there, I had been five. I even thought there were ghosts there!"

Hiruzen hadn't said it to anyone, but he thought so too. With the special sealing techniques the Uzumaki had developed, there were bound to be consequences, but he hadn't deigned it necessary to scare Naruto any more than he already is, he knew how afraid the blonde is of ghosts and had to endure every night living all alone in a very big mansion (that is also probably haunted). "Very well, here's one."

"What is it?" Naruto asked, enthusiastically, "Do we get to battle an army of undead zombies, or rescue a princess in a castle full of vampires, or maybe retrieve a super rare and cool sword in a forest full of werewolves?"

"Naruto, maybe you should stop playing those video games." Hiruzen said, getting Naruto horrorstruck at the statement. Both knew how far, and close at the same time, from reality the conversation they were having, with the newest virtual reality simulation Hiruzen had acquired just years ago. He, however, hadn't known that Naruto had been using it without his knowledge.

"No way! I haven't even finished the demon pumpkin field instance, that's only four more before the last dungeon!"

"We'll discuss this later, but this mission is a simple protection detail job." Hiruzen said, tossing the scroll towards Kakashi. As soon as Kakashi caught it, four quest panels appeared before the members of Team Seven, which they accepted without much reading its conditions for completion, they already knew they would be briefed with it soon enough. "Hisagi, could you bring the client in?"

Silently, another ANBU appeared from the wall to their right, bowed low and exited the room through the same door they used for a few seconds then coming back in followed by an old man stinking of alcohol, 'LVL 16 Bridge Builder - Tazuna' showing above his head. "Brats, eh? I was expecting an older team and also perhaps one that had more experience." The old man hobbled towards them drunkenly while the rabbit masked ANBU melted back into the wall.

"Drinking alcohol even before breakfast?" Sakura asked, incredulously, "What's your problem?"

"Just do your job and I'll pay you." the old man said, brandishing his bottle of sake at the team, "If you can't then I'll just have to find another more competent team than yours, I don't need some snotty nosed brats who would just cry home to their mommies at the first sign of trouble and you better respect your elders!"

"Very well, Tazuna of the Wave. We accept your terms." Kakashi said, tucking in the Mission Scroll to the belt on his waist. He assumed that with his head riddled with the effects of sake, he couldn't make out their names so he said, "My name is Hatake Kakashi, and these are my students, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. We're already more than prepared to take on a quest of this difficulty, so unless you lied about it, you don't need to worry about your safety."

"Hmph." The old man turned with a swig on his bottle and exited the room the same way he'd entered, without the ANBU escort.

"Very well handled." Hiruzen said, "I thought I would have witnessed some fit thrown by one of you, especially you, Naruto."

Naruto pouted but said nothing, he had been training to reign in his temper since he was a child, even before the Professor took it upon himself to take Naruto in as his fourth student, and probably the final one. His temper often got him in trouble, sometimes even accompanied by the rage enhancing chakra of the Nine-Tailed Fox that could have easily sent him on Berserk Mode. Luckily his mentors all had their own devices to use whenever that happened.

"All right then, let's get out of here, I trust you guys have your packs on the ready?" Kakashi asked, one of the perks of seals was that they could just put a lot of things they'd ever need in a scroll that can easily fit in one of their pouches, not much for food supplies, though, but they could always hunt for things along the way or gather some fruits. It's always a plus that a scroll only took up 1 slot in their inventory. The three nodded their heads. "Let's get going, he'll probably still be in the lobby."

* * *

><p><strong>_Outskirts of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 1136 Local Time, 27 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

This is taking forever, they'd been out of the village for more than three hours and they'd only covered about a kilometer into the road. Normally, ninjas would be going through the forest, leaping from branch to branch - it's the fastest known way of travel in their book, second only to teleportation. If they had a civilian in their protection, however, they would've taken a car, not as fast as the regular way as it would have to follow the roads, but it was enough, plus they would get to slug off in it. However, as it is, their client came from a poor country, and as such, their client is also poor. A car would've taken at least a million to buy, and it is a luxury ninjas never thought to purchase. Also, as they come from a ninja village, renting cars was out of the question; renting car businesses existed only in large civilian cities like the heart of the Land of Fire, or the nearby city, Tanzaku Quarters.

So here they were, walking under the glare of the summer sun, right out on the open metal road. While there was that announcement to make all open roads to be covered in cooling barriers that transformed the solar energy to power the tracks, enabling a smoother run for cars on the road, it would take a while to be implemented, maybe a year or two. Naruto reluctantly changed his outfit from the orange jacket and pants, favoring a different colored one with thinner fabrics to let the gentle breeze circulate in through his clothes much like his teammates'.

While the things they wore doesn't give much DEF and also reduces the effect of stealth, they didn't really mind much, after all, this was a simple C-Rank mission. They wouldn't expect to have to use any stealth-related abilities nor would they have need of a high DEF, if all they'd be facing were bandits, their EVA would be high enough. A regular bandit's ACC wouldn't even go up to 35% for their attacks to make a decent chance to hit any of them if they were actually fast enough to attack before being subdued by a ninja of their caliber. They could just as easily use their chakra to enhance their stats that they wouldn't need of a standard ninja gear.

"What's up with this heat? Did another solar flare erupt?" Naruto asked, wiping the sweat off his brow with the back of his left hand, having taken his forehead protector off for the moment. Wearing a light blue shirt, with "RAMEN is GOD" in orange lettering in the front and a red swirl on the back, light brown shorts and brown sandals he looked pretty much like a civilian, a grandson of Tazuna, being protected by the three other ninjas around him. If it weren't for the forehead protector in his right hand, many would've mistaken him for a very high-level civilian child.

"Not that I know of," Kakashi said, "Maybe we should take a detour instead? Go through the forest, with the cover of the trees." He'd hated going through the open road, they were ninjas not some civilian hitchhikers, but his suggestion had already been turned down by their client. He had said that he knew the way best through the main roads, they didn't. "We could still follow the main road, while we go skirting through the forest."

"And this heat is going to give me blisters and sunburn." Sakura added.

"Yeah, the sun is so not good for my perfect skin tone." Sasuke joked. Naruto and Sakura ridiculously looked him up and down, taking in every detail, as if trying to discern if he's the real one or not, they'd done this every time he'd made a joke, and each time, he would scowl at them. At the academy, he had always acted cold and aloof, something his mother always chided him for. However, as he got friends closer to him, he'd learned to let another part of himself be shown to them, the part that's only known by the remainder of his clan - the caring and not quite so serious Sasuke.

Tazuna sighed, outvoted by the ninjas who're supposed to be his protection details. Tazuna was about to speak but his mouth was then cupped by a small hand. Looking down, he saw the blonde kid put his index finger on his lips, a sign to silence, then pointed towards something in the distance. It wasn't very clear to him but he saw a puddle of water with two 'LVL? ? ?' above it. As the hand was removed from his mouth, he glanced nervously at the other ninjas around him; they were beckoning for him to go through the forest.

While the old man followed the Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke, Naruto on the road, and created four shadow clones and had them transform into his teammates and their client, going back into formation and stopping the illusion he'd created after having sensed the failed ambush. While they knew that the two had been following them from way back to the entrance of the village, Kakashi had told them not to do anything, wait if they were going to attack or not, then spring their trap or make a trap for them instead - a basic tactic to avoid any conflict with other villages. And that's the task he was assigned with, for all the training he had called pranks. He and his clones continued their trek on the road, waiting to spring the trap. He counted, 5… 4… 3… 2… 1.

After passing the puddle, two ninjas wearing camo shirts and pants under a black cloak emerge from it and immediately dispelled the Kakashi clone with the chain extending from their claws, but not without giving them the illusion that they'd really killed Kakashi, giving them gore and all the insides and blood spraying the concrete. As they moved for Naruto, however, the his own attack started.

Naruto elbowed the one on his right and turned right with roundhouse kick, sending one of them sprawling on the ground, towards where the Kakashi clone had been dispelled. As the ninja hit the illusory carnage, he'd immediately been paralyzed, an array of seals going up his body up to his neck. The Sasuke clone moved in on the other ninja and punched him in the face that sent him spinning in the air with the Sakura clone kicking upward, making him go higher. As the chain connecting him and the other had gone taut, he crashed down on the ground, followed by a drop kick from Naruto, embedding him a little on the concrete. To make sure the second wouldn't go back up, Naruto followed up with a seal to increase the ninja's weight tenfold.

The rest of his team emerged from the forest then, Sakura and Sasuke on either side of Tazuna, just like before, and Kakashi bringing up the rear. They walked up to the paralyzed ninja on the ground, with quick and nimble hands, Kakashi disassembled the metal claw equipped on the ninja's left arm and sealed it in a scroll which he then put back in his pack. "This is supposedly a C-Rank mission, one that wasn't supposed to have us facing any ninjas on the way." Kakashi said, turning to Tazuna, "We've sensed them for a while now, they've been tailing us since we'd gotten out of the gates but as we weren't sure what their target was, I'd decided we either wait for them to attack or we instead make an ambush for them. Do you know anything about this, Tazuna?"

Tazuna shook his head, "I'd entertained the idea but I wasn't sure he'd hire more than just regular mercenaries. I thought the project was something small enough to be overlooked, but I was wrong." Tazuna looked down, sadly, "I would've requested for a mission with higher rank but this is all our country could spare. With the Gatou Enterprises controlling the economy of Wave and oppressing the people, we couldn't even make enough to keep the orphanages running. I would understand if you would want to abandon the mission now, but please, we can't afford to make another request later, much less, one with a higher rank."

Kakashi glanced at his students and saw quiet determination burning in their eyes, but as the final word would have to come from him, they stayed silent. "You may not know it but my team is actually already prepared to take on a B-Rank mission, so with the approval of my cute little ducklings, we'd help you no matter what." Kakashi said, getting nods from his team, "We'd like more information about the current situation in your country, however, we don't like rushing in blindly."

* * *

><p><strong>_Hanamoto River, Wave Country; 1547 Local Time, 27 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

After having explained the distress of the small Wave Country, Team Seven took off through the forest with Kakashi carrying Tazuna on his back while Naruto carried Tazuna's pack. Naruto had created ten shadow clones to take the two captured Hidden Mist ninjas to the Hidden Leaf for their bounties. With the Village Hidden in the Mist currently in a civil war, they couldn't really take the two to their Hidden Village, that may cause the Hidden Leaf to be pulled towards the conflict. To reduce the risk the two captured ninja poses to Naruto's clones, Kakashi took their metal claws, thinking Sakura may find some use in them later, either with the poison in them or to enhance her fighting style.

By the time they'd crossed the river, they began to get their eyesight cut off by a thick mist, a chakra laced one, according to Sakura. Kakashi set Tazuna down on his feet, expecting another fight to be fought, and that's exactly what he got as he heard the sound of something huge swinging in the air towards them. They all ducked down as a huge cleaving sword sailed above their heads.

Not a second later, the sound of the sword being embedded into the trunk of a tree followed by a slow clapping, "Isn't this an honor. The famous Copy Nin, Hatake Kakashi." said a man with a gruff voice, standing on the sword. Wearing his Hidden Mist Forehead Protector slanted on the side of his head, with his face covered mostly by bandages, he looked like he was copying Kakashi's fashion sense from the neck up. However, that's where their similarities ended, wearing camouflage-styled arm warmers with his bare torso exposed except for the black strap where the sword would be attached from the back, orange pants with vertical stripes and a standard black ninja sandals completing getup.

Kakashi contemplated on the situation, regularly, he would have to take a ninja of this caliber, but his team isn't really like any other Genin team, they could have taken a ninja with the rank of Chuunin each on their own. He didn't know what kinds of techniques Naruto had learned from the Third Fire's Shadow but from the skills he'd seen so far, Kakashi would have to guess that Naruto could have defeated one that is on a Jounin rank. That's aside the list of choices he would be presented with, neither Sakura nor Sasuke knows what Naruto is capable of just yet, though they and the rest of the clan heirs in their graduating year knew of something different about him, Kakashi thought they aren't yet ready to know the whole truth on Naruto.

"What's wrong, Kakashi? Scared out of your wits?" the man, LVL 113 Devil of the Bloody Mist, Zabuza Momochi, taunted.

"Oh not much, just thinking if I should have my cute little ducklings take you on or I solo you, but that would require me using this eye," Kakashi said, palming his covered left eye, "that requires quite an amount of chakra, such a pain."

"Well if you can't decide," Zabuza started, "we could just end this quickly, hand the old man over."

"Sorry, no can do." Kakashi said, "See, we promised to help the Wave and the best way to do that would be to protect Tazuna while builds the bridge."

"Very well, if that's your decision, I'll just have to…" Zabuza began, as the mist around started to thicken. When they couldn't see further than a meter forwards, they heard all around them, "Slaughter."

"Sakura, can you sense him?" Kakashi asked, raising his forehead protector to show his left eye with a vertical scar running down it. Spinning wildly, he looked all around, but even with it, he was only as good as before only giving the benefit of a heightened perception of time, slowing everything down to one-fifths.

"I can't, this mist has the same chakra as him and it's all evened out, there's not much I can sense with this stupid mist surrounding us." Sakura answered.

"Eight choices." They heard Zabuza's voice all around, "Liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, neck veins, brain, kidneys, heart. Which one should I go for?"

At that, they felt the air getting heavier, the sign of killing intent being unleashed, they had been paralyzed. A second later, with their chakra enhanced senses, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke heard a silent thud of someone landing in their protective triad. A glance to their side, they saw Zabuza's form primed to strike, his large cleaving sword gripped tightly on both hands. Before he could continue with his assault, Kakashi tackled him with a kunai in hand.

A second later, however, Zabuza dissolved into water, a second Zabuza appearing behind Kakashi in the think mist. None of them could have moved faster as Kakashi was cut into two. Just like Zabuza, however, Kakashi's remains dissolved into water. Very much like what Zabuza had done, another Kakashi appeared from the thick mist. "Don't move," Kakashi said, "It's over!"

"Is that all?" Zabuza asked, before he, too, dissolved into water, and another Zabuza appeared from behind Kakashi in the mist. Zabuza made a heavy full circle slash that got his huge sword stuck onto the ground which he used to support himself to kick Kakashi in the face, knocking Kakashi into the water.

As Kakashi rose from the water, another Zabuza appeared behind him, quickly treading through handseals. "[Water Prison Technique]!

"Great, got myself trapped, such a waste of chakra trying to showoff." Kakashi grumbled.

Getting out of their paralysis, the three scowled. "You suck, you know that?" Sakura said as she threw three Senbons at the clone Zabuza had onshore, not a second later, she made some handseals, "[Shadow Senbon Clone Technique]!" What was three Senbons before was multiplied to a hundred and fifty needle sailing through the air, easily dispelling the clone.

"O-ho, so pinky has some tricks, eh?" Zabuza commented lazily, "You'll have to do better than that." Five Zabuza's rose from the water and made their way towards the three Genin.

"Yeah, well. I'm not really the attack type, I usually go for support." Sakura said, "I can't say the same for these two, though. You guys like to take care of the others?"

"Meh, Sasuke can deal with them." Naruto replied, "I'm gonna take a leak, if you guys don't mind." Without waiting for their answers, Naruto took off towards the trees.

"Bastard." Sasuke said as he took a storage scroll from his pouch. Applying a small amount of chakra onto the seal, a katana about as long as Sasuke's height appeared with a poof. He gripped the black handle and took it out from its purple sheath, twirling it around, then pointed it towards the clones lazily making their way towards him, Sakura and Tazuna.

"Playing with swords, boy?" said one of the clones, "Your leader is incapacitated, you should run like the midget. At least he was smart enough to know what he could and couldn't be prepared to deal with. You're no match for me."

All at once, the clones ran towards Sasuke. The nearest one swung his large cleaver sword at Sasuke who jumped over it then kicked the clone up the chin, dispelling it, a bit too easily. He'd thought it would have taken more than just one attack, considering the fact that it was an elemental clone, even Naruto's shadow clones could have taken three to five of attacks with the same strength before being dispelled.

Not really minding what he was doing, he just let his body do what it does best, dance. Ducking, spinning, twisting, slashing, kicking, punching, he didn't stop until he'd dispelled the last of Zabuza's water clones. Well he didn't really notice when he'd done it, he'd just came back to reality when he felt an explosion in the distance, an explosion that came from the direction Naruto was headed which was followed by another one a second later.

"Hey, are you done with your daydreaming yet?" Kakashi called from the water prison.

Sakura head snapped back towards Kakashi from looking towards the explosions. She'd sensed someone in the forest after Kakashi's water imprisonment, she guessed Naruto must have too, as after Kakashi was captured, the mist thinned and so did the chakra lacing the air around allowing her to distinguish the different signatures again. She kept herself quiet about it though when Naruto went towards the forest and opted to be Tazuna's guard instead while Sasuke absentmindedly disposed of Zabuza's clones and Kakashi remained in the water prison.

"Oh, you haven't gone out of prison yet?" Sakura scowled. She crouched and picked up a small rock by her feet, and with the activated [Mystical Might Martial Art], she threw it towards Zabuza going at close to 50 meters per second. Zabuza had to take his hand out of the water prison, barely evading the assailing stone. Zabuza glared at Sakura, then charged.

Ten meters away from her, and probably less than a second to cross that distance, Zabuza hefted his large blade ready to strike. Before he crossed that distance however, somebody crashed into him, veering him some five meters off to his right. Before he could get back up, Sakura struck, with deadly accuracy, three Senbons to his neck, not to kill but to incapacitate.

"Zabuza Momochi, Devil of the Bloody Mist." Kakashi commented, getting out of the water and taking his forehead protector down to cover his left eye. "Should amount to quite a hefty price. Even before the rebellion, he'd already had about some forty million Ryo on his head."

"Who's the other one?" Sasuke asked, when he was close enough, he saw the ragged and burnt clothing of what appears to be a Hunter Ninja from the Hidden Mist, "Naruto! What did you just do?! You killed a Hunter-Nin!"

Dusting himself off, walking away from the forest, he said, "First of all, guy's not dead. The things I used were low level explosives, this guy still has about a hundred HP, should somewhere between eight and nine percent. Second of all, I doubt the guy's an actual Hunter-Nin. I wasn't sure at first but this guy's been tailing us about half an hour before we faced Zabuza. I think he's an accomplice."

Kneeling down near the burnt Hidden Mist Ninja, with her hands writhed in Healing Chakra, Sakura said, "Well, couldn't you have just knocked him out instead of setting off those explosions, a simple paralysis seal would've been sufficient."

"Hey, he was the one who activated the trap, not me!" Naruto said, "I would've used a paralysis seal if I could've reached him before stepping into that explosive, but he was just too fast."

"Too fast? For you?" Sasuke asked, "Well that's new."

Naruto scowled but instead, turned to Kakashi, who was breathing rather heavily but otherwise fine, "Aren't the Yuki Clan supposed to be wiped out during that purge?"

"Apparently not, and I agree with Naruto, this guy can't be a Hunter-Nin from the Hidden Mist. Anyone with bloodlines are enemies of the ruling body of the Hidden Mist, or rather, the Bloody Mist." Kakashi said.

"Ummm… excuse me," Tazuna called, "What do you plan to do with those two?"

"Zabuza's a Missing-Nin from the Bloody Mist and so must be this other one, and now that I think about it, also the Demon Brothers. With the civil war in the Hidden Mist, and the bloodline purges still ongoing, I doubt these guys had reason to actually stay there." Kakashi said, "We'll have to interrogate them when they wake, or maybe send them to the Hidden Leaf just as we'd done with the Demon Brothers earlier."

"Okay… Whatever your decision, I'll have the bridge building resume tomorrow. For now, let's go to my house, it's not far from here."

* * *

><p><strong>_Kenmaru Forest, Wave Country; 1623 Local Time, 27 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

"You sure about just letting those two recover with just some clones guarding them?" Sakura asked, ducking under Naruto's high kick. After arriving at Tazuna's house some minutes following their meeting with Zabuza and his possible accomplice, Team Seven had decided to have some training in the forest adjacent to their client's home. With five of Naruto's shadow clones keeping watch on their captives, Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke trained their skills for what seemed to be days in the time distorted area with the aid of Naruto's seal - something he said he'd found in his clan's compound, not that anyone of his teammates believed him.

"Sure, with their HP at less than twenty percent, Naruto's clone's should be enough to dispose of them." Kakashi said, calmly watching his students from the side. If Sakura and Sasuke hadn't spent their time during the week after their graduation with Naruto and some of their other co-graduates, they would hardly believe Kakashi's answer, given that the Naruto before them shows 'LVL 28 Dead Last, Naruto Uzumaki' above his head. However, Naruto must've shown off more than he should have during that time as his new friends had become too suspicious of him, with the earlier displays Naruto had done, Sakura and Sasuke must have the gears in their heads turning at high speeds.

"Awww, you're flattering me." Naruto said as he created three shadow clones that charged at his teammates together with him. Still wearing the civilian clothes he had but now dirtied by an hour of training - about fifteen minutes in the real world. If he were to further enhance his STR, DEX and VIT with his chakra, he'd be almost unstoppable in this three way fight, if only Sakura would stop her landscaping. He had to keep zipping around the falling chunks of earth that were the result of Sakura's Earth Release Techniques and, also, avoiding both his teammate's illusions, particularly Sasuke's eyes. If only he could use his full arsenal of skills… no, this is only training, using his skills to their fullest should only be when they are in the midst of an impossible battle.

"Are you going to tell us your secrets yet?" Sasuke asked after dispelling one of Naruto's shadow clones with his sword.

"Ask Kakashi." Naruto said simply, kicking a falling rock towards Sasuke who then promptly sliced it in two. Sakura glanced over at Kakashi after having erected several earth spikes where Naruto was landing. Kakashi seemed to contemplate on it a while but he shook his head a second before Sakura had to move again, or be cut into pieces by Sasuke's sword.

"Aw, come on! It's been six years!" Sasuke whined. Kakashi snapped his head towards Sasuke at that. They'd stopped their melee just then, instead opting to sit cross-legged where they stood, regaining their lost chakra.

"If Kakashi decides not to, well I can't tell you either, that would break the Eighty-Seventh Directive. You'll just have to go straight to the Fire's Shadow." Naruto said.

"Okay, well tell us this at least, does it have anything to do with you being the host of the Nine-Tailed Fox?" Sakura asked. Kakashi turned his attention to Sakura then.

"Partly, but I think it has more to do with who my parents are." Naruto answered, "The old man said we'd reveal what we know about me after I become a Chuunin, but even then, we could only reveal we know. We couldn't really say anything about this bloodline that I have, that was what probably started all the secrets."

"A bloodline, eh?" Kakashi asked, with sudden interest. Standing up from his location and making his way towards Naruto, "Could you show me your Skill Window?" While Kakashi could see what Naruto's real skill list would be with the Access Codes he'd acquired days ago, Sakura and Sasuke couldn't so they merely continued with their rest with more grumbling.

After showing Kakashi Naruto's Skill Window and a quick internal burst to dispel the illusion, Kakashi saw, at the top of a long list of skills, under bloodlines ? (Active|Passive) LVL 39/100 with six more skills under the unknown bloodline having a maximum LVL of 50. Of the six, it seems only one had been used, without Naruto's knowledge, getting up to LVL 46/50.

Kakashi thought on the possibilities for a second but gave up a moment later, Naruto's previous mentors must have their own theories about the unidentified bloodline so he could just ask them. Kakashi turned his head towards his two other students, thinking back to their previous conversation with the blonde, it seems they had known about one of the village's most guarded secrets for quite a while - six years. "How did you know about the Nine-Tails?" Kakashi asked, directing his question at Sakura.

"Oh, that's easy, I sensed it." Sakura answered, "That was when I was discovered to have this rare sensing ability. Some seven years ago when he'd first started using the Fox's chakra."

Kakashi looked down questioningly on Naruto who just shrugged it off, "The old man said I had to try using it once in a while, and she was walking by when I first tried accessing it. We did it in a public, or almost public, training ground, we just didn't know just how much chakra the fox would've given."

"And, Sasuke? How did you come to be involved in all of these?" Kakashi asked, continuing with his interrogation.

Sasuke laughed nervously, "…well, I, um, eavesdropped on some of the clan elders when they happened to gossip about it. It was just an accident, I swear!"

Kakashi nodded but before he could say anything else, "When you said that it all started with your parents, did you mean the Fourth Fire's Shadow as your father?"

Naruto frowned at that, stopped the process to replenish his chakra and turned his attention to Kakashi who had gone rigid.

"Yeah! Been asking my mom about that, but she wouldn't budge at all. Your features are much too similar, so you're really the Fourth's son?"

Naruto said nothing, and continued to observe Kakashi who slowly nodded his head, "Remember that this is one of the Village's top secret information, under the Third Fire's Shadow's Directive 87. Anyone who knows about this before the Third deems it necessary to reveal the information must never say anything about it or face execution."

"Yes, we know. Naruto had that talk with us last week when we revealed we knew about the Nine-Tails." Sakura said, "And by we, I mean me, Sasuke, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Shikamaru, Ino and Choji."

"That many?" Kakashi asked, "How?" All three of them shrugged.

"In any case, we found out about who one of your parents are and his surname doesn't match yours so that means you bear your mother's surname." Sakura stated and Naruto nodded, "Based on the records I've checked in the hospital, the only Uzumaki that could've still been alive the day you were born is Kushina Uzumaki, the Crimson Death, is she your mother."

"Yeah." Naruto answered simply, awaiting further speculations from his teammates.

"Oh, I remember about her! I mean, not really remember, I never met her, at least when I was already aware of the world. Though, mom says she's seen me once that day you were born." Sasuke added, "Red hair, blue eyes, and really beautiful, according to big brother."

"Also, according to my parents, the Village Hidden in the Clouds attempted to kidnap an Uzumaki, I thought that was you, but it happened more than thirty years ago, so it must be her." Sakura stated, getting another nod from Naruto, "And nine years ago, there was another kidnapping attempt by the Hidden Cloud Village, but it was all hushed up, I'm assuming you were the victim and that was what started all of these secrets."

"Yes." Kakashi answered for Naruto, "You really researched a lot about this, why?"

"Oh it wasn't just me. Shikamaru, Ino, Shino and Hinata helped a lot, they were very curious and so was I. We'd started some sort of club, actually, some four years ago just to figure everything out about you, since our parents wouldn't say anything." Sakura answered.

"With all of those secrets you guys already knew, I guess it's quite pointless to keep it all a secret, really." Naruto said, standing up and dusting himself off, "Status Window, Skill Window. Allow Access: Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha." Naruto turned the windows around as his teammates jogged towards him and Kakashi, "The truth is that I'd been trained by the Third."

"Ohhh, so that's why!" Sasuke said, "Man, that's a lot of numbers!"

Sakura thought on it for a while then smiled an evil smile, "If you and Kakashi would go at it, one on one, who'd win?"

"Probably Kakashi." Sasuke said, "Even with these monster stats, Kakashi's still LVL 107, that's 38 LVLs higher than Naruto. And besides, don't you have like a thousand copied techniques?" Sasuke asked, turning his attention to Kakashi.

Kakashi, on the other hand heavily contemplated on it, in a life or death situation, he'd probably win, but if the battle was to be drawn out, Naruto would win, no doubt about that. Kakashi shook his head, even with all those copied techniques, he could only use less than fifty as efficient as he would like. With Naruto and his shadow clones, Kakashi's rigorous years of training would mean nothing in a matter of days. In fact, with Naruto's [Shadow Clone] Mastery LVL at 200+, and add in the Nine-Tails' chakra, Kakashi would probably be slaughtered within just seconds. That's still discounting the fact that Naruto also knows the technique that built up his father's reputation.

"We shouldn't be talking about things like this, shouldn't we be training right now?" Naruto said, saving Kakashi from possible humiliation at the hands of a twelve year old, twice in a week.

"Yeah, why don't you guys continue your training?" Though, inside, Kakashi was thinking of training alongside them.

* * *

><p><strong>_Tazuna's House, Wave Country; 1955 Local Time, 27 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

After more than twelve hours of training, Team Seven came back to Tazuna's house, with Kakashi being dragged by Naruto and Sasuke, his arms slumped over their shoulders. Having just trained himself almost to death by exhausting his chakra stores through duking just about all of his known techniques in order to raise his mastery over them. With his PC and SC running at 3% each, he couldn't help but pass out and now, Sakura would have to replenish his chakra with her modified Mystical Palm, transforming HP into PC and just letting his SC replenish on its own.

"Why did he have to do that? So uncool." Sakura grumbled, "If only we had a better Jounin Instructor, but I heard he's the best there is in the village." Sakura added with a sigh.

"There's actually someone with a higher LVL and better stats than Kakashi, but I don't think you guys would want to meet him." Naruto said.

"There is?!" Sasuke asked, surprised, "Who is it? And why wouldn't we want to meet him?"

"The name is Might Guy, he's the Jounin instructor of the Genin Team of Hinata's cousin, Neji." Naruto answered, "And to answer your second question, you would have to meet him for yourself to find out. Many other Jounins in the village call him as 'The Beast'."

"Hmmm…" Sakura knocked on the door of Tazuna's house to which she heard a woman call 'Coming.'

"Oh hello…" The woman said as she opened the door, once taking stock of the situation, she immediately let them in without question as she had already seen Naruto's clones in the upstairs bedroom.

"Sorry for coming in like this, our instructor's an idiot, you see." Sakura said, "Why don't you guys take him to that room Zabuza and that Haku guy are staying in? Then I'll can take care of things."

Hefting Kakashi up the stairs was no problem, though Kakashi would likely complain about his aching knees and feet that they dragged through the forest floor and stairs. Sakura had said it was punishment for Kakashi being an idiot that she wouldn't heal those injuries and instead claim them self-inflicted. Naruto and Sasuke merely nodded their heads in agreement.

Once Kakashi had been well enough to be given a chakra pill, the trio came down to their client's dining table, the four clones Naruto previously created had been replaced with new ones. They'd gathered some cooking ingredients on their way back, knowing that the country they were in is an extremely poor one - at least according to Tazuna's descriptions - they figured the residents would also be rather poor. 3 [Sage], 5 [Shiitake Mushroom], 4 [Basil], 3 [Loach], 1 [Crab], 2 [Catfish] and 9 [Small Shrimp]. They didn't know just what they'd make with the ingredients they'd gathered, maybe create some horrible new recipe with it, but all the same, they gave their catches to Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter.

"Thanks for the bountiful meal." The trio said after having chowed on some sort of grilled seafood which didn't come from the sea. With the aid of Tsunami, who was, thankfully, used to gathering the same ingredients they had, they'd learned some new cooking recipes which they could use for some missions in the future, if ever they get to cross some river. The food they ate even gave some temporary STR and DEX buff aside from restoring their HP and PC.

"Don't worry about it, this would be a small help compared to what you're giving to father in building the bridge. You're not just helping father or this small family for that matter, you'd be helping the whole of Wave. For that, any kind of aid I could give, I would." Tsunami said with a kind smile.

Of course, that moment of gratitude had to broken with, "Just give up! You're all going to die anyways!" coming from a small boy, about six-years-old.

"Inari!" Tsunami scolded, looking scandalized. "Please forgive my child, he doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Oh, please, let him talk. I'd very much like to know what he thinks of death." Sasuke said, all the while smiling. Naruto and Sakura merely frowned but said nothing as the child continued on his rant.

"There's no way you guys can win against Gatou! If you don't want to die, you should just leave." said the child.

"Oh brave words for a child." Sasuke said, still smiling - that's now seriously creepy, it looks like it hurts his face too much - "What would you know about death? Do you somehow remember the life you've lived before?"

"Sasuke…" Naruto and Sakura warned, but Sasuke merely waved them off.

"Would stop smiling? It's creepy!" Inari shouted, getting Sasuke to frown deeply, and when he opened his eyes blood red with two comma-like figures spinning around his pupils. Inari shut himself up at seeing those eyes, suddenly feeling a lot of dread.

"Sasuke, he's just a child, stop this!" Sakura ordered, or pleaded, more like.

"He should've stopped himself before I did anything, shouting about things he knows nothing about." Sasuke stood and made for the door, "Don't wait up."

When Sasuke slammed the door with a loud bang, Inari was already weeping streams of tears, snot coming out of his nose, and Naruto thought the kid might've even peed in his pants. "I'd like to say sorry for my teammate's actions. He's been like that since much of his family's been killed, but I'm sure he'll be back in the morning."

"I don't know what Sasuke had done, but if he'd done what his own brother did to him, a very unlikely situation, it could've induced trauma and if that is the case, there is very little I could do. Only the Legendary Tsunade has enough knowledge of both the body and the mind to heal any trauma caused to the psyche." Sakura stated, looking at Inari closely like a very fine specimen. She put her healing energy encased hand on the child's forehead to check if there has been any abnormality in the structure of the child's brain and the pattern in the electrical signals in his nerve network.

After letting the green energy die down from her hand, Inari then fainted, caught by Naruto long before he it the floor and lifted Inari in his arms, "His thought pattern and vital signs are in regular order, I put him to sleep for now, but he should be fine after a good night's sleep. It is most likely that Sasuke merely used a [Hell Viewing] illusion and nothing that is far more damaging."

"Thank you." Tsunami said, taking the child from Naruto's arms. "While I don't appreciate what Sasuke did, Inari shouldn't have done what he did in the first place. I'm glad, though, that all these hadn't escalated into a more blown-out argument."

"You don't have to worry about long winded arguments from Sasuke, that's my thing." Naruto said, as Tsunami was going up the stairs, probably to get Inari to his own room.

While the woman came up, the old man came down, his eyebrows raised with a curious expression as his gaze trailed Tsunami's form. He turned his attention towards the two Genin, "What's got Inari peeing his pants? That's not happened since more than a year ago." Tazuna asked.

"Hmmm, let's see…" Naruto said as he fell into a thinking pose, "Inari said something about giving up the mission, that we'd just get killed by Gatou, what's up with that? Anyways, Sasuke kind of lost his temper when he'd said we'd die and maybe put the kid in an illusion, that's what he normally does when he loses his temper. Sakura has already done some first-aid against illusions and he should be awake after a good night's rest. A change in personality may occur, however, and that is something his close family must pay close attention to if it ever happens; the change may be bad or good."

"Okay…" Tazuna trailed, looking down on his feet, then sitting at the dining chair with a heavy sigh, "I hope that, if a change occurs, it would be a good one. Especially after the death of his father, Inari has always been like that, quick to give up on anything that may result in dying. Every person of this country had losses Gatou had taken, whether it was a whole year's earning or the life of a loved one, everyone here knows just what it means to loose. With an army at is beck and call, Gatou's hold over this country cannot be broken by us, mere civilians, and that's why we turned to get help from a Ninja Village, we just didn't know it would take much more than we could ever give."

By the end of his statement, Tazuna's eyes shone with tears, though not really falling, yet. He closed his eyes and slid from his chair then bowed his whole body, his head touching the ground, "I know this plead is overdue, but please, please save us from his tyranny. We cannot take a year more of this kind of situation, many children are starving in the streets and many people die by the passing second. With the bridge, we may be able to alleviate the country from poverty, but not as Gatou still reigns free."

Naruto and Sakura frowned, but no answer came. The old man was asking for more than the parameters of their mission so they'd have to discuss this further with their leader, so instead of shutting the old man's hopes or giving an agreement, Naruto and Sakura hauled him up to his feet. "If it were just me making the decision, I'd wholeheartedly take your request by myself. However, we are a team, with as our team leader is currently indisposed of to make the choice of either taking your request or shutting it down and our other member out of this meeting, we couldn't make a landslide decision and force Kakashi into making a deal with you." Naruto said.

"So, we'd either have to wait for Kakashi to recover or Sasuke to come back here, or both." Sakura said, "As for me, I'm with Naruto. I'll help your country back to its feet with or without an army to face us, with or without an army to back us up. Although… If we could convince your fellow countrymen to take up arms, we could probably help them by providing some weapons and armors."

"We could?" Naruto asked, then he remembered some hundred studded leather armor sets that he'd forgotten to sell to some merchants, because the first time he asked, they wouldn't take anything from him. Add in some crude swords and other weapons he'd created when he was starting up in [Blacksmithing] - an art he didn't deign to raise above LVL 26, then maybe untrained militiamen might stand a chance against being one-hit killed by bullets and turn a bloodbath in the Wave. Naruto took off towards the second floor and took the huge storage scroll that held all the items he'd made over the course of a year - two years ago, when he'd wanted to raise his crafting skill LVLs to 50 and above.

"What's this?" Tazuna asked as Naruto handed over the huge storage scroll to the old man, it probably weighed some 3 Kg or more, and taking about 10 slots in his inventory, so Naruto was very excited to finally get rid of the thing, then he could take more things to lug around in his pack.

"That's probably where all those items are sealed, but you don't know how to use chakra, do you?" Sakura asked, getting Tazuna to shake his head, confirming Sakura's thoughts, "Then it's probably better that one of us takes hold of that."

"Right, sorry. Got a bit too excited to clear up some space in my inventory." Naruto said, scratching the back of his head with a silly smile. "Say, you still don't want to take at least 10 of those Chakra Metal? My inventory's swamped!" Naruto said to Sakura.

"I say it again, it's a waste of space to me, my Smithing isn't high enough to make anything of it." Sakura answered, "And I'm not planning to LVL it up again anytime soon, my hands are for healing not smelting."

"Dang…" Naruto grumbled, "Should've just left it at the compound, why did I even bother to take my backpack with me…"

* * *

><p><strong>_Tazuna's House, Wave Country; 0927 Local Time, 28 June 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

"Alright, since we're feeling generous, we'll let you guys and your two other associates go, if you fulfill a certain condition." Kakashi said, as he stood before their two captives, feeling very refreshed and not at all exhausted as he was the night before - with Sakura's aid of course, otherwise he'd be on crutches.

Zabuza glared at Kakashi, then glancing at his companion, Haku, who nodded lightly. "Very well, what's your condition."

"Betray your employer." Kakashi answered simply.

"And if we don't?" Zabuza asked.

"Then we kill you and get your bounty, don't know about the kid, but your bounty should be more than enough compensation for the trouble you caused us." Kakashi replied with a shrug. On his side, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke stood with tightly guarded expressions; they haven't yet quite got into their heads the idea of the job they were taking, well Naruto does, but he doesn't like it.

"Then it's a deal." Zabuza said, "We could always take Gatou's plunder after disposing of him, should be quick work."

"The money should go back to the people who suffered under Gatou's tyranny." Sasuke said with a growl.

"Hmmm… Sure, we'll just take 10%, that would still be more than a billion, enough to fulfill my mission." Zabuza added.

"Funding for the rebellion?" Sakura asked, while she knew that Zabuza was, at least, one of the leaders of the rebellion against the government in the Bloody Mist, she thought that their funds would be enough for the upkeep and buying new supplies, their rebellion comprised of several famous clans backing them after all.

"Of course, with the war going on for more than ten years now, the resources of our own sponsors would be going thin." Zabuza answered.

"Ten years, eh?" Kakashi hummed in thought, "If this rebellion of yours lasts for, at least, three months more, I think the Third Fire's Shadow could be convinced to send some help. The faster this war of yours end, the faster your mercenary work would end, and then we could strike up a deal, maybe, and setup some businesses and trade between villages."

"We'll see." Zabuza answered.

"On to the next topic for discussion," Kakashi said, turning to Sasuke, "You're saying there were at least five tanks rolling towards the bridge?"

"Five amphibious tanks." Sasuke specified, "Though, there must also be more land based tanks to go with those. Also, last I saw, there were some half to three quarters of a hundred armed soldiers marching through the forest, en route to the village, also towards the bridge."

"Then we must get the villagers ready." Kakashi answered then turning to Naruto.

"We're already on it, I had my clones distribute some armor and weapons with Tazuna as soon as we heard Sasuke screaming like a mad man." Naruto answered before Kakashi could say anything, to which Kakashi nodded and Sasuke punched him in the arm.

"In any case, we should hurry up, those tanks are likely to reach the bridge in an hour." Sakura said.

* * *

><p><strong>End of Chapter<strong>


	4. Chapter 3 - Test the Test

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, that much is obvious.**

* * *

><p><strong>_Training Ground 7, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 1044 Local Time, 11 July 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

Two weeks had passed since the bloody confrontation between the two factions that claimed the Wave Country; the citizens of Wave, aided by six ninjas from the Hidden Leaf and the Bloody Mist, versus the army Gatou had at his disposal, added with several tanks and mercenaries. While the conflict had mostly been a one-sided massacre against Gatou's well armed men, the battle had turned badly when the mercenaries - Missing-Nin from the Village Hidden in the Stones and Village Hidden in the Sand - stepped in. All tanks destroyed, and half the army taken down even before the countrymen had arrived.

More than seventy percent of the army is dead, the rest wounded and incarcerated. At least half of the participating countrymen had also died in the battle, mainly at the hands of the thirty Missing-Nin Gatou had hired, and the other half were severely wounded, some missing limbs, eyes, or sanity, but all were heroes to their country. With both sides receiving heavy losses in the conflict that ended with Gatou's death by being backstabbed by one of his hired mercenaries, none celebrated. Not until the bridge had been finished which was then named the Great Kaiza Bridge, in honor of the first casualty of Gatou's reign.

All plunder and profit that Gatou Enterprises has gathered over the years has been split between those participating parties. 10% to Zabuza and Haku, both of whom disappeared immediately after getting their share of the bounty, 15% to the remaining mercenaries to avoid any more conflict, and the remaining 75% going to the citizens of the Wave. As their treasury had been filled back to be able to pay the proper mission reward at the right rank, Team Seven got 10 million Ryo, in addition to the 40 thousand Ryo they'd receive after returning to the Village to turn in the quest.

A week of guarding Tazuna for their real job and training after the old man called off their work finished for the day, Kakashi had exhausted himself ragged, together with his 'cute little ducklings' as they worked themselves to the ground in Naruto's Time-Distorted makeshift training ground, or as Kakashi liked to call it, the portable Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Having experienced their first war, or a mini-war, they'd all agreed that they should train harder, especially Naruto, whose unidentified bloodline has been revealed during the conflict, the legendary [Eye of the Samsara]. With newfound abilities to go with the eyes of the mythical Sage of the Six Paths, their team deduced it as the reason for the mysteries surrounding the Uzumaki, instead of their unique sealing styles or extraordinary vitality.

After coming back to the village and turning in their finished quest, they had a private talk with the Professor. Hiruzen had revealed he'd suspected the [Eye of the Samsara] as Naruto's bloodline. After all, Jiraiya had another student with the same eyes and the unmistakable crimson hair of the Uzumaki, but couldn't prove it as an Uzumaki bloodline as that student was rumored to have died. There was also the accelerated rate at which Naruto learned elemental techniques beside the fact that he actually had an affinity for all five basic elements. Without access to the ruins of the Village Hidden in the Whirlpool, they couldn't affirm this possibility and only waited for Naruto's bloodline to reveal itself in time.

A week off of missions, Team Seven had gained even more LVLs, all in order to prepare for the upcoming Biannual Chuunin Exams. Sometimes joined by Team Eight and Team Ten, Team Seven had thought themselves fully prepared for the upcoming exam, and that is why they were sparring with their Jounin Instructor, who'd also gained three LVLs in the week off of work.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, now LVLs 76, 57 and 62, respectively, exchanged places with each other tagging out to regain their HP, PC, SC and STA, while Kakashi fired elemental techniques one after another, like he'd done during their first night in Wave. With some techniques mastered and his stats raised, however, Kakashi thought his wounded pride finally beginning to heal, a week Guy had set aside all other tasks to train with his friends was very fulfilling, especially after getting out of the green spandex they had to wear during their special training.

"Need a hand?" Sakura and Sasuke asked at the same time after seeing Naruto's HP at half the maximum. With the [Eye of the Samsara], Naruto could actually see through the eyes of his Shadow Clones, if he had bloodline activated during the clone's creation, but it also left his attention to continually be split in two or more points of view, and when dispelled, the clones' migraines would also transfer to him. He was, of course, very thankful to Sakura for her extended attention on his mental health after he'd said he'd been seeing as if his eyesight were still split even when his bloodline wasn't in use.

After creating a shadow clone, Naruto leapt to the side to avoid Kakashi's mid-kick and gone through some hand seals, a second and a half later, he spouted a [Great Fireball] aimed at his clone and Kakashi. Kakashi, at seeing the sixty-meter-wide fireball, leapt to his left where a small river ran through. At the same time that Kakashi leapt, the clone cartwheeled to the opposite side, then shot a [Wind Vacuum Palm] at the Fireball to redirect it towards Kakashi who was preparing a technique that seemed suspiciously like the same one he copied from and made a collaboration technique with Zabuza to utterly destroy all the amphibious tanks coming from the river.

[Water Explosion] - a fruitless and disastrous technique - as, while it served to counter the wind vacuum enhanced fireball and dispel the clone, it did nothing against the original and only served to give Naruto some of his lost PC and SC back, which he promptly used to regain up to a third of his HP while he hid under the earth. It also got both Sakura and Sasuke soaking wet, which provoked them both to attacking Kakashi. With Kakashi's HP now under half, his PC at about two-thirds and his SC at less than a third from continuously trying to put Naruto under an illusion, he lasted about a minute, maybe less, against the two who attacked relentlessly, ferociously and with the aim to cause him bodily harm.

When Naruto came out of his hiding hole, about half a minute after Kakashi's surrender, he was confused. He'd expected Kakashi to engage him in combat after being forced out of the earth, but as it didn't happen, he popped out like a gopher searching for any immediate dangers to his being, and instead only found two soaked teammates glaring heatedly at their beat up instructor. "Awww, come on! Why'd you guys have to ruin the fun? I almost had him!"

The two glared at him, reminding him immediately that even though his LVL was actually higher than the LVL 41 showing up above his head as an illusion, he would still have a hard time against the two, even with the upgrades he'd received. Thus, he shut up and made a mad dash out of his hidey hole when both his teammates made their way towards him. Even Sakura seemed to have her eyes going red.

Halfway towards the exit, he tripped upon a suspicious mound of earth he was sure wasn't there a second ago, but that may just be because he was running at his top speed and wasn't paying as much attention to where he was going than he usually would have. Not a second later, he heard the certain arrival of his teammates, who, now that he thought about it, might also be blaming him for ruining the seals they'd been making while he was out sparring with Kakashi. "You just had to use a wind and fire technique." Sakura began

"You just had to make it that specific combination to make Kakashi use a high-level water release technique." Sasuke added, his crimson eyes glaring at Naruto, the two comma-like figures in each eyes spinning around his pupils.

"Uh… Guys, can we talk about this calmly?" Naruto tried to get them out of their murderous states.

"No." Sakura said coldly, "Those sealing supplies that water technique just destroyed cost me at least half of my share from the last mission, do you know how much that is?"

"Even the technique scrolls I haven't yet began to study had been destroyed because of that." Sasuke added, his voice devoid of emotion, and the surrounding had become very cold from their combined killing intent, "Do you know how hard it is to find a technique scroll that should be unique to just our clan, huh?"

"Ehm… Eh, you can't?" Naruto said, which sounded a lot like a question, though he knew pretty much that he was right. He gulped loudly when he saw that the comma-like figures in Sasuke's eyes were spinning even faster and looked like each eye had six instead of two of those figures.

"Damn right, you are." Sakura answered, "Now, tell us, how do you plan to compensate for our losses, hm?"

"Ummm…" Naruto began.

"Too slow." Sasuke said, as the world fell away, replaced by hell. A mountain of efficiently stacked cups of ramen was crushed by a giant pale palm, which Naruto wasn't sure what the origin was, just that it came from the heavens, which was then followed by another pale fist pounding the crushed cups down, which he could do absolutely nothing about. He didn't even think he had a body here, wherever here was, just that he could see his perfect precious ramen being mercilessly destroyed. Then it came back to him, it's all an illusion.

When he dispelled the illusion, however, he didn't see the forest of Training Ground 3, instead, he saw giant ramen bowls, each with a ladder leading to the brim of the bowls. He had his body this time, all of his senses, and his sense of smell told him of his precious ramen steaming inside the large porcelain bowls. Without wasting time, he climbed the ladder he was closest to, and even though it was faint, he heard a snickering from a distance which he ignored, the scent of his precious was getting closer and stronger.

At the top of the ladder, his utopia turned into a nightmare, and the faint snickering became a full-blown laughter that rang loudly in his ear, though he wasn't sure what the source was. In the giant bowls, what he saw made his stomach turn, instead of the Ichiraku delicacy he was used to, there were worms, bugs and veggies - the type of meals that the old toad Shima usually whipped up. A [Hell Viewing] technique Sakura and Sasuke must've put him under. He gathered a large amount of his chakra and made one big [Internal Burst].

He still didn't get to go back to the real world and was instead brought somewhere he sorely wished he didn't have to go back into. Loud, raucous laughter rang out from the darkness of the dank sewer. While it didn't really anger Naruto, this situation annoyed him too much, especially since his prisoner was laughing at his predicament. "Damn fox." Naruto muttered.

Naruto traversed the all too familiar setting that had the large gate with the seal keeping the Nine-Tailed Fox at bay. As he continued down the path, the laughter simmered down and turned to growls. When he was finally right before the gate with the giant fox leering down at him, its fangs bared as it said through its teeth, "Ah, so the jailor graces the pitiful prisoner with his presence once again. Came to gloat about the eyes?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the question. Perhaps the fox knows more about the Uzumaki Clan than it let on before, but Naruto wasn't going to ask it anything about his nearly extinct clan, foxes are known liars after all. Instead, Naruto let out a huff, "What about the eyes? Besides the fact that I can now see through illusions just as Sasuke can and that my mastery rate for most skills has increased, nothing much has changed. The abilities granted by these eyes are already covered by my clan's unique sealing style, so it's not like I'll have something new to add to my already awesome set of skills."

Not understanding why the fox suddenly laughed at his nonchalant dismissal of the legendary eyes, Naruto scrunched his face in confusion as he stared at the fox. When the fox's laughter died down once again, it glared at Naruto, "You really are just human." The fox said, turning its back on the gate and circled around then laid down, posing like the girl in that old movie saying 'Paint me like one of your French girls.' It was even checking its sharp nails, bored out of its mind, and maybe forgotten Naruto was still there, as when it glanced at the gate and saw him, it said, "Oh you're still here? Why don't you go back out? I'm sure those asses are now sticking you in a lab and dissecting you for your innards and trying to figure out the secrets of your oh so holy body."

Naruto glared but still stayed on spot, determined to figure out what the fox knows. "What do you know about these eyes then, oh mighty and glorious fox?"

"Oh, stop it, you. You're making me blush." The fox said, covering its face with three of its tails, "You really know how to compliment a god, so I'm going to let you in on some secret…" The fox trailed.

A few seconds of waiting for whatever the damned fox was keeping inside that fuzzy brain, Naruto grew tired and said, "Well? Out with it. I have a limited lifetime, ya know?"

The fox huffed, then it stood and made its way back to the gate and stared down at Naruto and he stared right back. "Hmph. A human getting those eyes. Preposterous. Those eyes are the eyes of demons of the highest kind, to think that even a whole clan of humans has the potential to attain it, I could only think of the shame it brings upon the mighty race." The fox made a face that Naruto thought should have been a disgusted expression, "But since it's already there and most of your wretched clan is dead, I suppose I can deal with just one knowing its secrets." The fox said, nodding its head sagely.

"More than what your little game can ever tell you, those eyes possess the power to manipulate the very reality you are living in. A small scale of course, but it can still do wonders many would call miracles. As the brat barely knows anything about these eyes, even subconsciously, that little game you're playing could hardly make sense of its powers. Even your clan, that had lived for decades just to identify its inner workings and put into that human magic you call seals barely scratched the surface. One who possesses the eyes had walked the six paths and must then walk on the outer path between life and death. A simple human with no comprehension of the world and its nature cannot begin to comprehend the complexity of the Samsara."

At the end of its sentence, the fox narrowed its eyes at Naruto, as if trying to discern something but turned away back to the shadowy corners of the cage. The fox's actions before it had gone back to the darkness was lost on Naruto who was replaying what the fox had said about his eyes. So his clan had been trying to make seals based on the abilities granted by the [Eyes of the Samsara], but why? And what's that about the fox calling seals magic? Before he could make further thoughts on the matter, he woke.

* * *

><p><strong>_Room 4316, Hidden Leaf Hospital, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 1251 Local Time, 07 August 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

Looking up to the worried stares of his teammates and a change of scenery - the Hospital. "Oh good, you're awake." Kakashi said, leaning against the windowsill while reading that porn book.

"Sorry for putting you in an illusion." Sakura and Sasuke said simultaneously and almost robotically. Actually, he'd seen robots act more human, during his secret mission in the capital. Both looking down, Naruto felt something he never did in a long time from either of them - regret, and is that guilt?

"Awww, that's so sweet, you guys!" Naruto said, trying to cheer them both up, "That also means I get away from soaking those important documents, right?"

Both gave an imperceptible nod, and at that, Naruto saw something that he'd never seen either do, cry. It seemed that both were feeling so much regret and guilt over putting him in that illusion. Trying to dispel the negative emotion washing over him, he said, "Hey, hey, hey! What are you guys crying about, it's not my funeral!"

That got them to cry even harder! So much for trying, he turned to Kakashi for help, who had taken to sleeping in the makeshift lounge by the window with his porn book covering his face. Naruto wasn't sure he was sleeping, though, as he saw some tiny movements from his body, like small jolts or light shivering. Not really able to keep up with the weird situation he was in, he asked, "Uh, guys, what's going on?"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't know it would have such an averse effect, especially on you. I thought that with your resistance to illusions being so high, you wouldn't suffer much. I'm sorry!" Sakura said hurriedly, then sobbing loudly into her hands.

"Eh?" Naruto said with a tilt of his head, "It's alright! A few hours should be nothing. That's what illusions usually took when not dispelled immediately, right?"

Sakura shook her head, her long pink hair going with the motion, but still didn't give him a better explanation for the situation. With his eyes turning red, not at all because of his bloodline being activated but from too much crying, Sasuke looked up to face Naruto, tears still falling down his cheeks, "It wasn't a few hours, you've been in a coma for a whole month."

"Eh? Eeehhh?!" Naruto shouted, "B-b-but how!"

His shout must've alerted nearby stationed ANBU operatives as, a second later, he saw four of them appearing in the room with a [Body Flicker], looking for signs of intruders. When they saw Naruto awake and no signs of intruders had been detected, the one he recognized the most, nodded to the others and without another word, disappeared as they had entered.

"What the hell is going on!" Naruto shouted again, how could this be? A whole month trapped inside a simple illusion? He understood that while it was not actually a simple illusion but a [Demonic Illusion] and enhanced with the powers of the Copy Wheel's Eyes, it should have been broken a lot sooner. The only person he'd heard to have been in a coma after an illusion was Sasuke, having been the victim of his brother's Tsukuyomi, but even then the more powerful illusion only lasted a week.

Maybe Sasuke's sudden upgrade to Tier 3 of his bloodline got the illusion to last more than it should have. Or maybe… Naruto thought back to his conversation with the fox, his eyes were meant to be for demons of the highest class, maybe [Demonic Illusions] worked better against demons and, somehow, Naruto has turned into a demon. From inside his head, he heard a loud rumble, a raucous laughter that could only belong to the damned fox. His thoughts had been cut off as he heard the door sliding with the Fire's Shadow coming in.

"Hey old man!" Naruto greeted. He wanted to run over and hug his adoptive grandfather but couldn't, his body wouldn't move, he would've actually gone and took his friends in a group hug, if only that could stop them from crying so much. "Is it true I'd been asleep for a month?"

"Technically, no. You're three days short to make it a month, but I'm happy you're awake." The Professor said with a small smile, "Now, now, children. This isn't time to cry, it's a time for celebration. Be happy that your teammate's awake, isn't that what you wanted for the better part of the month?"

Sakura and Sasuke gave a small nod before wiping away their tear-stained faces and blowing their noses into their handkerchiefs. "That's better, group hug! I can't actually move from this position, so you're going to have to do all the action." Naruto said. So that's what they did, a teary group hug, but instead of guilt rolling off of them, Naruto could now only feel joy and happiness.

* * *

><p><strong>_Hidden Leaf Academy, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 0800 Local Time, 11 August 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

With Naruto having spent a month in coma and another day to regain his bodily functions, Team Seven had been doubtful about participating in the Chuunin Exam Kakashi had nominated them into. Not only that, since Naruto had been put into a coma by his teammates, the assailants had trouble in continuing their training, and they'd also been afraid to use their illusory techniques again.

They'd theorized that Naruto entering the coma had been a combination of a couple of things - their LVL in the [Demonic Illusions] had been high enough to put someone like Naruto, whose [Internal Burst] skill is at 93, into at least twenty illusory layers for more than an hour. Add in the fact that Sasuke's bloodline had just upgraded into Tier 3, Naruto's LVL 103 [Illusion Resistance] had been rendered ineffective. And the final ingredient to the concoction was the Time-Distortion Seal stopping its functions before Naruto could break out of the illusions, what was supposed to be a minute of [Hell Viewing] became a month of coma.

Not one to give up, however, Naruto convinced his teammates that he would be fine for the duration of the exam, even forcing them to take it, otherwise he'd just make clones and transform them into his teammates. Obliged to protect Naruto from harm, who they now saw as a fragile and precious little kid going at only LVL 41 instead of the real LVL 76, Sakura and Sasuke joined the Chunnin Exam, glaring at everyone, who so much as raises an eyebrow at Naruto's low LVL in comparison to his teammates. To Naruto, as long as his teammates had decided to take the exam, he was fine with the awkward situation he was put into.

That's how Sasuke got into a fight with LVL 64 Green Beast, Rock Lee, who Naruto nicknamed Bushy Brows. Lee was merely complimenting Naruto on his 'Fiery Youth' that despite having a low LVL, he still chose to take the exam for his teammates. Sakura and Sasuke took this as an insult and had challenged the other Genin. Rock Lee, the apprentice of the Blue Beast that he is, took the challenge on the condition of a one on one spar, getting Sasuke to take him on with his Tier 3 [Copy Wheel's Eyes] already activated.

Sakura on the other hand, remained with Naruto, acting like some kind of bodyguard, saying things like: 'Don't you worry about your safety.' or 'We're on the job.' or 'Nothing will ever harm you that won't go through me first!' Naruto wanted to shout that he doesn't need bodyguards and that they should stop bitching around but Sakura or Sasuke would cut him off before he even got a word out. A fierce hand-to-hand combat between the two and Sakura cheering Sasuke on to 'Take down the douche.' which Naruto first thought was a cheer for the opposing party.

A quick look to the Green Beast's stats told Naruto that a pure hand-to-hand combat would be on the favor of the boy with the bowl cut, that was without a doubt. With STR, DEX and VIT each reaching two thousand and more, Naruto could say the boy was, without a doubt, a beast, in Martial Arts, that is. With his INT and WIS below a hundred and accompanied by a Status Debuff that prevents him from using any Elemental, Chakra or Illusion techniques, Rock Lee must have chosen the route of a martial arts and trained the stats useful to him allowing him to reach a base STR, DEX and VIT of 300+.

Even a single punch or kick would take a chunk of Sasuke's HP and even with his LVL101 [Copy Wheel's Eye] that allows him +11% EVA and +21% ACC, excluding the ACC and EVA he'd get from the +21% DEX, he would still have a lower DEX than Lee. With a special attack like the Hidden Leaf Whirlwind that Lee used as his opening attack, he could easily destroy Sasuke whose PHYS DEF is only at 3477. Another special attack, initiated with a kick to the chin, launching Sasuke to the air with Lee beginning to untangle his bandages while midair. Luckily this attack was stopped, otherwise it would've knocked Sasuke out or at least broken some bones, since his HP was about halfway spent.

Posing in a ridiculous position on top of the shell of a tortoise was LVL 131 Blue Beast, Might Guy. While his first time seeing him in person, Naruto had read about Might Guy from the BINGO Books he'd been given in the past. Just like Lee, Guy has a special condition that prohibits him from using any elemental, chakra and illusion techniques. Though not completely, as when he'd raised his INT and WIS, he'd been able to use a limited amount of chakra techniques, that's according to Naruto's team captain when he'd been an On-Probation ANBU trainee. So maybe, it's not a lost cause for Lee, after all, he'd just have to raise his INT and WIS if he so wished to use any of the techniques used by conventional ninjas.

Somersaulting in midair, Sasuke landed just in front of Sakura who was eyeing teacher and student with lots of suspicion and curiosity. Sasuke, however, was angered, not with his opponent but with himself; he let his opponent dictate the rules of the battle. He thought that if he'd used the other arts in his disposal, he'd have been able to defeat the other boy, but despite all that, he still glared at the boy with the thick eyebrows. Naruto, on the other hand, had been calculating possible situation behind the façade of shock he had been keeping when the Jounin appeared. All of his thoughts stopped when Guy punched Lee hard, knocking him in quite a distance, and proceeded to hug the boy tightly - a morbid scene the onlookers never wished to repeat.

They'd been taken out of their disgusted internal rants when Guy had blindsided them and said, "Apologies for the rash actions of my apprentice, students of Kakashi."

"You know him?" Naruto asked. He didn't know about any relationships Kakashi might have had with Guy from all his conversations with his captain from the ANBU who had idolized Kakashi.

"I see he hasn't told you guys about me." Guy said, "He might be really embarrassed about his Eternal Rival besting him 51 to 47." Guy finished with his left giving them the thumbs up and a smile showing his teeth that shone so brightly, serving to mortify the Genin before him even further. "Now, why don't you guys go? I'm sure the examination room's getting filled up, you don't wanna be the last ones to make it in, right? My team will follow right behind you guys, I just have to clear a few pointers with them."

After a tiny nod from each of them, Team Seven sprinted up the stairs and out of the gymnasium, towards Room 301. With a sudden halt at arriving at their destination, they crashed into each other, with Sasuke at the bottom, Sakura at the top and Naruto sandwiched between the two. Two of them fussed over the other, scrutinizing every part of the body if there were any possible wounds or fractures from the fall. With all the overprotectiveness coming from his teammates, Naruto wanted to call them mom and dad, just to make fun of them, but a moment of thinking made him second guess that thought. They'd probably just take advantage of that and make fun of him since he's the shortest among the three of them.

To try and stop his teammates from any more of the annoying thing they were doing, Naruto went over to the double sliding door and entered it. Followed by his teammates, Naruto scanned the area, looking for his friends and possible threats. Without even making himself known over the entirety of the aspiring Chuunin, his friends had made their way over to Naruto and his teammates.

"Eh? Still at LVL 41?" Kiba asked loudly. LVL 59 Feral Wolf, Kiba Inuzuka, "I thought you would've abused that seal of yours and made to at least LVL 47. Man, what did you do since that week after graduation?"

"That's enough, Kiba." said his teammate, Shino, "You should know better than to ask him. He'd only awakened four days ago. What do you think he could've done during those two weeks after having made their team? They'd obviously been hard at work with their missions." Shino reasoned, though Naruto was pretty sure Shino already suspected different, after all, if he had been able to detect that illusion and dispelled it, he knew Naruto's real stats would be higher than what the illusion showed. Plus, Shino had been one of the five who'd been a bit too interested about Naruto's background.

"Could you not talk about me like I'm not here?" Naruto grumbled.

The LVL 59 Insectologist, Shino Aburame and LVL 60 Snow Lioness, Hinata Hyuuga, however, regarded him as if what he said insulted them that made Naruto twitch. "Okay, then answer this, why are you so weak?" Hinata asked.

"Stop being so rude!" Sakura reprimanded her, "Naruto just woke up from a coma, of course he'd be weak, he couldn't have exactly been training during that time, could he?" That got Naruto's eye to twitch even more, taking Sakura's statement as a slight instead of the purpose Sakura meant for as an excuse.

"Hey forehead!" Ino called, "What's this? A gathering of the nine and you didn't even think to call us over?"

LVL 57 Mind-Walker, Ino Yamanaka followed by her teammates, LVL 59 Not Fat, Chouji Akimichi and LVL 55 Shadow Master, Shikamaru Nara, were making their way through the crowd towards the other rookies of the Hidden Leaf.

"First of all, pig, we didn't organize this, they came over." Sakura relied, motioning over to Team Eight whose members glared at her, "Second of all, did you just call us 'The Nine'? That sounded like some occult organization or something, could you not call ourselves that?" As Team Ten came closer, Sasuke made a sneak move towards Chouji who had been munching on some chips. Nonchalantly reaching over at the big bag, while looking away, Sasuke felt his hand slapped by a big and callous hand that had to have the skin made of stone or steel.

Chouji, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes at the Uchiha while still munching on his chips. Shikamaru bumped into Chouji as he absently followed his friend who had stopped his movements to eye Sasuke circling back and made his way towards the other six rookies who'd been conversing loudly with each other, the main topic - Naruto's very low LVL in comparison to the other rookies'. In all honesty Shikamaru had already known something was different about Naruto and that suspicion had been solidified into a fact once he and his friends had began their thorough investigation about Naruto's background.

With the knowledge of who Naruto's parents are and his status as the host to the Nine-Tailed Fox, there was absolutely no way the blonde had been allowed to stay at such a low LVL. Despite the fact that majority of the village hates him, as the host to the Nine-Tailed Fox, he is bound to be the village's ultimate weapon, that's what is common amongst all villages. Add in the fact that his parents had made themselves many enemies during their lifetime, particularly in the Village Hidden in the Stone and Village Hidden in the Mist, he should have at least been trained to protect himself against possible assassins. There had already been one kidnapping attempt made against the blonde, so it would only be logical that he was, in the least, guarded about many things instead of this carefree attitude he was showing.

Shikamaru sighed as he followed his best friend to the group of rookies. Thinking too much about the blonde would lead to nothing, confirmation about their suspicions coming from either the target of their doubts or from the leader of the village himself. "Could you guys be more boisterous?" Shikamaru asked when he was close enough.

"Sure, like this." Naruto said, then took a deep breath, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I'll be the next Fire's Shadow! Believe it!" Naruto shouted, earning him stares and glares from the other occupants of the room. "There, could anyone of you be more boisterous than that?"

"No one could." answered a newcomer, LVL 67 Aspiring Ninja, Kabuto Yakushi, "No one should, either. You're supposed to be a ninja, you should have known better than to shout things like that in a room like this, makes you an easy target." He said, pushing up his round-rimmed glasses up his nose.

"Who're you?" Naruto asked confusedly. As he used [Observe] on the guy, Naruto found out that he was also like Naruto, hiding his true stats in an illusion with a B-Class Restricted Access. Narrowing his eyes at the guy, Naruto wondered if he was like those Chuunin in the ground and second floors of the academy who were sent to cut off the numbers of applicants. If not, then maybe he's one of the guys disguising themselves as applicants and joined the others, but whose purposes were unknown to Naruto.

"Just another Genin from the Hidden Leaf trying to help fellow ninjas from the same village, that's all." he replied.

"Help? How?" Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes grey-haired ninja.

"These." Kabuto said, showing several digital cards but the screens are blank. "With these babies, you can view the profiles of other people no matter the place they're coming from, but if access to their profiles are restricted, these won't be much help. The NCSC haven't yet released these from R&D and I was just lucky to have been in the team that had accepted a mission request from them."

That confirmed his suspicion, Kabuto is definitely a Chuunin in disguise. Naruto knew that missions coming from the famous company starts at B-Rank, never lower. But why would the bespectacled man choose to aid them, the rookies, instead of the others who were more likely to pass these tests? Nonetheless, Naruto wanted them so, "Woah!" Naruto exclaimed, "Can I have one? Can I? Can I? Please?"

"Don't worry, there's more than enough for you guys, we'd been told to market these out while they continue its development." Kabuto said with a smile. As Kabuto distributed the cards to the rookies, Naruto, who has been the first of the group to get one, immediately tried to access the different profiles of different people he knew like Zabuza, Kakashi, Hiruzen, etc. It worked perfectly for those who has themselves registered, but for someone like Haku, the digital card showed nothing. "I'd advice you guys to use these to scout out anyone that could pose trouble amongst the applicants for this exam. However, for those who are truly strong, it would be logical to think that their profiles would require restricted access and these things wouldn't help you at all."

Out of the corner of their eyes, they saw a fast shadow making its way through the crowd towards their location making all the rookies tense, ready for an attack. Before the shadow could make its way towards them, however, before it could reach them, they heard the double sliding doors open with a large man wearing a gray trench coat coming in, earning the attention of all occupants of the room. With his attention focused on the new arrival, most likely their exam proctor, Naruto almost missed the heavily bandaged ninja pickpocket Kabuto and make his way back through the crowd, but with his training in the ANBU, he had been able to sight the culprit. He did, however, miss Kabuto's gaze switch from the large man to him and back again in less than a second.

"What is everybody gawking at? Sit down!" The man ordered, getting all applicants to scamper around and take seats provided for them, "The name is Ibiki Morino and will be your proctor for the first part of the exam. Do not talk and I won't have to tell you to shut up. Do not be an idiot and I will not have to disqualify you. Go only for what is necessary and you may pass this part."

"This part of the exam will test your wits, will and skills. I trust you are prepared for what this first test entails, if you don't, then you don't have much to hope for during the second part, you'll just die. Better quit while you're still at this part of the exam." Ibiki said, scanning the entire room. A few seconds lasted without anyone making a word and he continued, "Very well, now the rules and mechanics of this test will be explained. You will be given nine questions to answer for an hour, while a tenth will be given after the hour has passed. Cheat and you will be marked down. Be caught five times, then your whole team will be disqualified. If there are no questions, then you may begin!"

Ding! On the desks before them, a digital screen embedded into the desks flashed and showed them nine hard questions. With high enough INT and WIS, one could easily answer such questions like what was asked in the first number: 'Given 169 DEX, 311 INT, 184 WIS and Basic Fire Affinity at LVL 11, calculate for the ACC, ELEM DMG and Cast Time of a LVL 46 Fire Release: Great Fireball.' A pain to answer, but the nine questions are answerable to Team Seven and under half an hour at that.

Naruto's predicament, however, was that if he answered these questions, he'd blow his cover. His illusory stats shows he has only 58 INT and 34 WIS and that's not quite high enough to answer even one of the test questions. If he cast an illusion over himself, even if many would be fooled by it, there would still be some who could dispel it and draw attention to him. His choice would've been to just cheat, not that he couldn't answer the questions on his own, but that also brought the problem of having to act convincingly enough that people thought he was cheating instead of answering the questions of his own intelligence.

He must've been looking desperate as he thought of ways to cover up his real identity for he heard from his side, "Tch, idiot." Hinata muttered, "Here copy from me if you're desperate. I don't want to have to see you tearing your hair out, it's distracting."

Naruto glanced to his right, to see Hinata's head down, writing furiously on her monitor and her [All Seeing White Eyes] active. Turning back to his own monitor, he wondered if he should try using his clones under the [Transform] technique. It might do, but how would people know that those were his clones but at the same time also keep it not too obvious? This time, Naruto gripped at his hair tight, all these thinking about what strategy to use.

"Ah, fuck it." Naruto said before picking up his pen and started solving the problems shown before him. He figured that since all his secrets would be revealed after the Chuunin exam, it wouldn't matter if more people became suspicious of him. Within 17 minutes, he'd finished his exam which was easy with his 1919 INT and 1909 WIS. Sakura's 1134 INT and 2175 WIS, Sasuke's 763 INT and 2044 WIS should be more than enough for his teammates to answer the test with the majority of the test being calculations instead of remembering information about things.

_"Are you insane? Did you want to blow your cover?"_ Naruto heard from his head, at first he thought it was the fox but with a seriously high-pitch voice then he remembered he'd set up a [Thought Transfer] - a seal developed by the Uzumaki in order to put the abilities of the [Eyes of the Samsara] into seals - seal between his teammates two days ago. Similar to an ability possessed by the Yamanaka Clan, the abilities of the Path of the Human, however, rips the soul of the victim instead of just absorbing memories.

_"I'm sorry, I was panicking, I totally forgot about the seal, should've consulted with you guys first."_ Naruto said, though if he was being truthful, he wouldn't really have done so. He was tired of having Sakura and Sasuke treating him as a child that needs protecting.

_"You should've but it's already done it so it's no use saying sorry, next time, tell us when you intend to do something stupid."_ Sasuke added. Yes, Naruto feels like his teammates are really acting like overprotective parents, he should call them mom and dad.

_**"The brat says he wants to call you guys his parents, though I'm pretty sure you would find that endearing than an insult."**_ The damned fox quipped in.

_"Stay out of this, you damned fox!"_ Naruto mentally shouted.

_"Watch your tongue, young man."_ Sakura reprimanded him.

_"Yes mom."_ Naruto said. His eyes widened at that and slammed his head repeatedly on the table before him. Poor table.

_"Say that again…?"_ Sakura asked, her mental voice sweetly sounding over their connection.

_"I didn't say anything!"_ Naruto said.

_"Don't take that tone with your mom!"_ Sasuke said.

_"Dad!"_ Naruto said, almost whining. He might as well take it the whole way if they were going to talk to him like this.

_"Sasuke, don't encourage him! What would people think!"_ Sakura almost shrieked.

_"Don't worry, I'll take responsibility, just be sure not to spoil him and he'll grow up alright."_ Sasuke replied.

Before their mental conversation could continue, as they ignored the many groups of Genin going out of the room, Ibiki caught their attention with a loud bang, courtesy of a punch to the wall behind him, though the wall was immediately replaced with a new one as the old one scrolled down through the floor. "Put your pens down, the hour is up and it is time for the tenth question!" When some didn't put their pens down and instead began to cram their answers, Ibiki shouted with a booming voice, "I said, pens down!" That got stragglers shaken enough to drop their pens and began to tear up.

"Good." Ibiki said, with a sweeping gaze, "Now, the tenth question. All or nothing. Choose to give up now before I reveal the question, then you and your team can freely go. Choose to continue and answer, then you will have to know this: answer correctly and you pass the first part, answer wrong and you will never get a chance to take the Chuunin Exams ever again."

At first, it was met with silence, three seconds later, all the could be used to describe the situation was outrage. Many wanted to jump off their chairs and tear the proctor to pieces, Naruto wanted to do so too. He wanted to say how utterly ridiculous that condition was, but someone else had asked a calm and more logical question. It was met with the answer: 'Well, I guess, you're just unlucky that I was the proctor this year.'

That got even more teams to quit, reducing the number of participants to about seventy from the hundred and fifty that were left from the three hundred at the beginning. All they had to do was raise their hands and they'd be out of the exam, with a chance to take the exams at another time. It was tempting, but Naruto was tired of hiding his real self from everyone, even if it was for his own safety.

The minute passed and the tense atmosphere around the room made its occupants nervous, but none more had raised their hands to signify their resignation. Ibiki exhaled loudly, "Very well, congratulations to all who remains, you pass the first part of the exam."

"What!?" Naruto exclaimed, "We pass?! What about the question?"

"The real question is: 'Are you prepared to take on a mission no matter how little information there is about it, or how high the possibility of the external factors affecting the mission you're taking on?'" Ibiki answered, "The ninja world is full of uncertainty and only with the perseverance to plunge into the unknown will you be able to continue in it with your head held high. When all of you decided to take the question no matter how high the consequence might be, you have proven that you all indeed have the will required of someone with the rank of Chuunin."

"So all of those nine questions we answered are useless?" asked a ninja from the Village Hidden in the Rain.

"No. As I've said, this exam requires wits, will and skills. The nine questions you have answered before were to test your wits, whether or not you have the mind to answer questions meant to be for a Chuunin or a Jounin. If not, then you would have to use your skills in order to gather information, while not being obvious about it, that is why we have these Chuunin disguise themselves and join your ranks." Ibiki said. Six people were engulfed in smoke and all six were now wearing the same outfit Kakashi and Iruka wore, complete with the forest green flak jacket and dark blue sleeves. "Information gathering is one of the most important skills in the life of a ninja, especially in missions with ranks higher than C. While not important to pass the test, your answers will be considered in whether or not you will be made a Chuunin."

"No time to celebrate!" The occupants heard from the walls of the room. On the wall behind Ibiki, a woman's face was being shown, "Follow the instructions that will be shown on the consoles before you to make it towards the site of the second part of the exam. I expect you all to arrive here in less than a minute!"

Ding! On the monitors on their desks, a route going around the map of the village was outlined in red, going from the Academy to the Training Grounds, specifically, the 44th Training Ground, a restricted area reserved for ninjas with the rank of Jounin and higher. It was about 10 kilometers away from the Academy following the route, 3 kilometers if they were to take the shortest route - over the rooftops, through the forests and training grounds, but still going around clan compounds. 3 kilometers, even if one were to enhance their DEX with a MAX LVL [Body Enhancement] technique, most would take at least 3 minutes at full speed. Even Naruto, with his +626% movement speed, would take at least a minute and about half and that's at full speed.

The only possible way to reach that place in that time period would be to use [Body Flicker] in succession. Naruto wasn't going to do that, however, aside from the fact that it would draw more attention to him than what he did during the exam, his teammates do not know the skill and he can't take them with him, his STR isn't high enough to carry both while also using the skill. Instead, Naruto had decided to run with his teammates, albeit with a small lag in his speed.

Since Kabuto and his teammates hadn't actually been one of the planted agents, Naruto was suspicious and had taken to watching their movements while he ran towards the next site with his teammates. He'd tell his team about his suspicions later when they're away from prying eyes. There was also the thing about the single team that came from the Village Hidden in the Sand, aside from the fact that their profiles were kept in the restricted section of their village, one of the three knew the [Body Flicker] and didn't even bother to keep that secret.

* * *

><p><strong>_Training Ground 44, Village Hidden in the Leaves, Land of Fire; 1042 Local Time, 11 August 3486 TA, Era of the Sage_<strong>

Naruto threw caution into the wind and used the [Flying Thunder God] technique to flash himself and his clone next to his teammates. With a possibly S-Rank Missing-Nin after them, Naruto thought it was enough to count as an emergency - which, in accordance to Third Fire's Shadow's Directive 87, allows him use all of his abilities to their fullest, no bars held. Not wasting time to dawdle around and check the status of his teammates, Naruto threw the three-pronged kunai with the seal in its handle, used [Shadow Kunai Clone] on it and [Multiple Shadow Clone] technique not a second later.

With the [Body Enhancement] technique increasing his STR, DEX and VIT by 1250 each, he could take many of his stats to the max, and only using 30 PC and 3 SC per second, not counting the reduction of PC and SC usage his passive skills granted. It can't even make a dent in his steadily recovering PC and SC with REGEN of 490 PC per second and 383 SC per second. Naruto and his clones flashed to the kunai and cloned kunais as they neared their target, who, as expected, was very evasive and had a very flexible body.

Why would one of the Legendary Three go after their team, though, and exactly during the Chuunin Exams at that? Who is his target and what does he want with any of them? These questions ran through Naruto's head as he and his clones continued their assault. Flashing through handseals, he and his clones spout different elemental techniques at the opponent, all the while thinking of the reasons the slithering ninja had.

Naruto's first assumption when he was attacked and led away from his teammates was either to be assassinated or the extraction of his special eyes. However, as soon as he got out of the snake that swallowed him with the use of [Burst] and found no assailant, he figured that the target would be either of his teammates. He thought Sasuke was the most likely target for his bloodline, but why go through so much trouble when the snake could easily take one of the less trained surviving Uchiha's? Then his thought went to Sakura with her extraordinary sensing abilities, but what would Orochimaru want with that kind of ability?

With only five of thirteen remaining shadow clones, and his opponent nowhere to be found, Naruto thought of what to do next. He could either use his bloodline or try and sense Orochimaru out, the second wasn't likely to be successful as his opponent should know [Chakra Dampening] at a high LVL. So, Naruto activated his bloodline and for which he was happy he didn't have to see through multiple points of views and instead just the disorienting discoloring of his vision.

Forward, left, right, behind, up and down, Naruto scrutinized his surroundings but couldn't see any other chakra other than his teammates'. Deactivating his eyes, Naruto made his way back to his teammates, though he still kept his [Body Enhancement] technique on, in this forest, they were likely to be ambushed by either their recent enemy, competing teams or wild animals. Naruto frowned, however as he reached his teammates, they were both unconscious. Maybe he should've left a clone to look after them instead of getting them all concentrated on Orochimaru.

Wasting no time to idle around, Naruto created two clones to carry his teammates and find a place for them to recover. Aside from the fact that he had already spent more than half of his PC and SC in bombarding Orochimaru with elemental techniques, his STA is now only at about 20%, with all the running he'd done before the second part started until the face-off with one of the Legendary Three. It wouldn't be beneficial to start hunting for another scroll right now, they still have a week before the deadline, anyways.

He'd established their camp about half a kilometer away from the site of the battle in the northeast, at least that's according to the multifunctional device he had integrated into his hand with the ability granted by the Path of the Demon. He couldn't trust it fully, however, as according to their proctor, navigational devices don't work as good as it should inside the forest. He'd made a [Four-Point Encampment Barrier] seal with four of his clones, two disguised as his teammates, while the real one and his team were hidden under an illusion.

He prayed they woke soon, his clones doesn't exactly have the same PC and SC REGEN as he has, and while it would still take some time for them to be dispelled, it would happen sooner or later. Plus, they also have to find some food, they didn't exactly prepare for a weeklong survival test. He thought, however, that if they didn't wake once he'd regained all of his PC and SC, he start to use the [Mystical Palm] on them since they strangely didn't recover their HP which is now at half of the MAX.

While sitting on lotus position to regain his PC, SC and STA, Naruto heard groans coming from both of his teammates, "Ugh, what happened?" Sasuke asked, clutching at his head. He looked around and saw the clones that kept the barrier, he asked, "Why are you disguised as me?"

"Would you be quiet?" The real Naruto grumbled, hidden under the illusion just as his teammates were, "This illusion is just a visual one, I haven't had enough chakra to make a silencing illusion too and I didn't have any [Silence] seals ready to be applied. Just rest and recover. My clones still have enough PC and SC to make the barrier last for at least two more hours."

_"Okay,"_ Sakura agreed through their mental link, _"What happened, though? The only thing I remember was that woman attacking us before blacking out."_

_"Not sure about a woman, I'm pretty sure Orochimaru is a man."_ Naruto said.

_"Orochimaru?"_ Sasuke asked, _"But we… I had my bloodline active at the time, I'm sure there wasn't a [Transform] buff affecting the woman that attacked us."_

_"Did the assailant attack with snakes?"_ Naruto asked.

_"Yeah, why?"_ Sakura asked.

_"Then that's Orochimaru. The only known summoners of snakes are Orochimaru and the proctor for this part of the exam. There are also no possible techniques that I know of capable of using living things for things like those except for [Summon]."_ Naruto answered, _"It could be possible that he wasn't using a regular [Transform], the other member of the Legendary Trio, the Lady Tsunade, is known for a technique like that to keep her youthful appearance."_

_"Alright, so it was Orochimaru, but why attack us?"_ Sasuke asked.

_"I'm not sure."_ Naruto answered, then upon pondering the strange situation he found them in, he asked, _"Say, could you check for any new equipped seals?"_

_"Why?"_ Sakura asked.

_"It's just a hunch."_ Naruto answered.

The two nodded, a useless gesture, as they couldn't see each other under Naruto's illusion. At opening their Equipment Window, both briefly scanned for any difference, and as Naruto thought, there was a new unknown seal equipped on both of them, just under Naruto's [Thought Transference]. _"There is a new seal."_ Sakura and Sasuke said at the same time.

"Thought so." Naruto said, as he dispelled the illusion he had over them. Naruto was frowning heavily at both of them. Naruto stood and made his way over to his teammates and checked the back of their necks, "Cursed Seals, typical."

"Cursed Seals?" Sasuke asked, as he tapped at the prompt saying: 'Equipped [?] Seal now known, [Cursed Seal of Heaven] information stored into databank.' With Sakura, however, the prompt said: 'Equipped [?] Seal now known, [Cursed Seal of Earth] information stored into databank.' Both tapped at the equipped seals on their Equipment Windows and another window opened up to reveal their respective seals.

**Cursed Seal of Heaven (Active|Passive)**

Description: A seal acting like the Yin and Yang seals to continuously store chakra dependent upon the character's PC or SC REGEN. However, instead of storing PC or SC, it stores NC instead. The Cursed Seal of Heaven stores NC at the same rate of the character's SC REGEN. Unlike the Yin and Yang seals, however, Cursed Seals has a limited Chakra Storage Capacity. When Active, the seal then uses the accumulated NC to enhance the character's stats.

***MAX NC equals MAX SC**

**MAX LVL 50**

**Cursed Seal of Earth (Active|Passive)**

**Description:** A seal acting like the Yin and Yang seals to continuously store chakra dependent upon the character's PC or SC REGEN. However, instead of storing PC or SC, it stores NC instead. The Cursed Seal of Earth stores NC at the same rate of the character's PC REGEN. Unlike the Yin and Yang seals, however, Cursed Seals has a limited Chakra Storage Capacity. When Active, the seal then uses the accumulated NC to enhance the character's stats.

***MAX NC equals MAX PC**

**MAX LVL 50**

"Isn't that convenient? What's NC?" Sakura asked.

"Nature Chakra." Naruto answered simply. At his teammates' questioning glances, he sighed and explained further, "Nature Chakra is a type of chakra present in nature, that should be as clear as the sun. Nature Chakra, if used in conjunction with Physical and Spiritual Chakra, could then be used as Sage Chakra which is a lot more powerful than the one we use with just Physical and Spiritual Chakra. If used to make any techniques, at all, any elemental, chakra or illusion techniques, it could increase the effectiveness and damage done by those techniques, at least thrice."

"That's awesome, but why do I keep getting this vibe that there's more to it than just what you've said?" Sasuke asked, slightly weary at Naruto's growing anxiety and slight exasperation.

"That's because there is. You see, in order to gather Nature Chakra, you'd have to be still as the earth, pretty much like a statue. However, that seal allows you to skip the gathering part as it would do that for you. The thing, however, is that it also likely carries Orochimaru's presence in it to gather the Nature Chakra." Naruto explained calmly, "That's what the toad sages do for the Pervy Sage, they sit still on his shoulders to gather Nature Chakra and pass it on to him so that he could move while in combat. I do not know if all of these are mere speculation, it's not yet confirmed and we do not have the knowledge necessary to prove it."

"Okay, so not awesome and kinda gross." Sasuke commented.

"Jiraiya has been trying, for years, to find a way to take the seal away from the only person who ever had it in this village before Orochimaru put the seal on both of you." Naruto grumbled.

"Who?" Sakura asked.

"Still the proctor for this exam, Anko Mitarashi, Orochimaru's former apprentice before he left the village." Naruto replied.

"Okay… But why would he put this seal on us? What's the purpose?" Sakura asked, she was now starting to hate this situation, always asking Naruto for things she didn't know.

"Again, I'm not sure. Though, I should warn you guys, these seals draws upon dark thoughts, like how this seal works on me. The more negative thoughts I think, the more the Nine-Tailed Fox could pass its chakra to me and take control of my body. That is why it is called a Cursed Seal, aside from the possibility that it could contain a bit of Orochimaru's soul and thus fragment his soul, it could affect the target like a Tailed Beast would affect its host."

"So no dark thoughts and we'll be alright?" Sasuke asked.

"Supposedly." Naruto answered, "Before we end the discussion on bad news, I think you guys should also know about Kabuto and his team."

"I already know." Sakura said.

"Me too." Sasuke said with a nod.

"Right then, I'm hungry. What's for lunch?" Naruto asked.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter End<strong>


End file.
